


Bandits of Misfortune

by Xelha_Llara



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Thieves, Assassins & Hitmen, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Marriage Proposal, mutated creatures
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-03-22 20:26:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13771899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xelha_Llara/pseuds/Xelha_Llara
Summary: Myths are thought to be unreal objects, but sometimes a few things can come close to the very description of said myth.Commander Lexa learned that exact lesson the hard way after being robbed by the infamous bandit group of the 12 clans, nicknamed The Ghosts. They had ambushed her group and stole all their belongings, including her proposal necklace for Costia, making them number one on Polis' Most Wanted list.The last remaining survivors of the Ark crashed within No Man's land, and were raised by a group of rogue grounders. Trained in the ways of stealing, counterfeiting, coning, and assassinating, they grew to be the perfect image of a trained thief/hired assassin. They could rob anyone, anywhere, but they never meant to steal from the Commander. Some people are just at the wrong place at the wrong time, not to mention that when an opportunity such as this arises a thief never backs out.





	1. The Ghosts and the Commander

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. I just wanna say that this book it on Wattpad but not complete at all because I will be fixing parts of it and finishing it here. This work is not stolen whatsoever, just like Death Has a Name isn't stolen either. I hope you enjoy this book and if you haven't read my other book, go and take a quick peak. The beginning of it isn't that good (I know, I'm gonna fix it soon) I need an editor if anyone is interested for both this book and my other. I will be updating Death as soon as the next chapter is done. Both of my books do not have regular updates. If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to place them in the comments below. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Today was an important day.

 

Quite possibly the most important day of Lexa's life, it being a close second, going after her ascension day into being Commander. Naturally, she was nervous beyond a shadow of a doubt and would be visibly shaking and rambling if she hadn’t been trained almost all her life to keep her emotions in check. She had heard stories during her childhood of when others went through what she was about to do. They ranged from embarrassing cliches to terrible misfortunes and a few ending with terrible rejections. It did concern her but she trusted her plan and entourage enough. If anything was going to go wrong then she would likely have a small mental breakdown but she quickly casted the doubt aside and pushed her hope forward.

 

Titus didn't agree with it but Anya encouraged her to do it, so here she was. Lexa was going to ask Costia to stand by her side to the very end of their days, she was going to ask the girl of her dreams to be her wife.

 

Anya thought it was a long time waiting while Titus thought it would put her as weak in front of the people and they would likely target her. In this case she trusting her first mentor's advice and pushing herself to be the most vulnerable she has ever been.

 

Costia and Lexa had been together since they were young warriors training in the village at only 7 summers. She didn't get the courage to ask her until they were both 16 summers old and Lexa was about to be sent to train with the other Nightbloods the following spring. It was sudden but they made it work and have been in a relationship for 6 summers and winters since then.

 

It had been a hard at times but Lexa always tried to visit her as much as she could while Costia worked as a healer in TonDC. Both would sacrifice time for the other, the team effort strengthening their relationship which gave the push the Commander of the 12 needed to ask the lover of her life to be each others forever.

 

So here she was, riding her beloved white horse who was carrying her bags that held many important things, specifically the ring that had been specially crafted for Costia.

 

"Lexa. Are you alright?" Anya asked in a low voice directly beside her.

 

Lexa looked at her old mentor confused before Anya darted her eyes towards Lexa's hands which were nervously picking at the reigns of the horse. It was a small movement but Anya knew the tell. She had basically raised the girl beside her from day one of training and she knew that this certain move was only done when Lexa was almost terrified of whatever event was about to occur. 

 

"I'm fine Anya. Just thinking." She confessed under a hushed tone.

 

They were riding in the middle of their small group. The trip had a group that was slightly different from the usual guard unit used to make the trip to TonDC. This group consisted of her royal guard and trusted advisors for the annual tour across the clans every fall. It was a traditional trip all Commanders before her took in order to check the conditions of the clans and if they had a problem, it would be addressed as soon as possible.

 

Anya nodded and dismissed the conversation while they continued riding towards TonDC for the Trikru part of the journey. They had already met with Desert Clan, the Boat People, and Broadleaf which were all doing fine except for a small problem that seemed to be a most popular theme for this year’s tour. It was the same reason that prompted the trip to go nearly 2 weeks in advance in order to get atop the situation that had slowly plagued the clans.

 

They had to discuss the topic of an out of control rogue group that had been around for quite a few years now. They had recently upped their activity within the past few years and were now constantly stealing from people off the main roads in between clans, killing villagers, and scamming countless more. They had robbed almost everyone within the clans except the leader of Trishana Kru and Lexa herself. Due to their success of crime with the added bonus of avoiding capture the group was given the nickname, The Ghosts. They were seen by few but never touched, making them similar to the lore of ghosts. Simply whispers in the wind but always wreaking havoc in some part of the clans.

 

Not many people knew much about them but they did know that when they strike, they didn't hold back for anyone. They take everything of the highest value all in the span of mere seconds then run off into the unknown never to be heard from until their next victim is found. Nobody could track them so once they left, the likelihood of retrieving any of your belongings were impossible. Trikru has sent countless warriors to go into the woods to find them, along with many other clans, but the only thing anyone had found was a note that said,

 

" _ Nobody can catch a ghost _ ."

 

That had been the only clue they found, and that was 3 years ago. All the clans had been chasing them since then. They had been fairly active but within the span of months, they had upped their activity to a point where they've stolen from every clan and possibly every village in every clan at least twice now. Nobody knew how they were able to get away with it but they continued to show Lexa that they want to be noticed. It was a constant game of taunting and they had finally gotten the attention they wanted after scouts reported finding a body with their marks just a mile outside of Polis.

 

"HEDA! COME QUICKLY!" One of the warriors in the front yelled.

 

Lexa and Anya quickly shared a look before they bolted to the front of the group. They weren't sure what to expect, but what they saw should have warned Lexa that something was off yet her previous thoughts of the task ahead had clouded her better judgement.

 

Off to the side of the main road, under thick bushes, was a torn apart body laying near another torn open body. The pieces of a cart and shredded supplies were scattered all over the forest on the side of the path. It was horrifying to see but it was slightly less gruesome since the bodies were both laying on their stomachs so no eyes could see the dead eyes of the victims of the local panthers. They appeared to be young traders just leaving from TonDC but were just caught by the beasts that ruled over all the forests within the clans.

 

Upon closer look, Lexa could see it was a dark haired girl, a few years younger than her, wearing a thick coated, faded black, hooded coat with boots that went a bit past her ankles. Near her was another girl's body but her hood was still up so nobody could see her hair or any part of her face. All anyone could see was her torn open back and the puddle of blood she lay in.

 

"We heard that the panthers have been moving further down and once they pick a spot they will attack again. The bodies are still warm meaning the kill is still fresh so they are close by. We must move soon and will likely  need to keep off this route for today if we wish to live" Togon said in a rough sounding whisper, carefully scanning the trees beside them.

 

"You know these woods best Togon, show us the route to reach TonDC safely." Anya answered back, now keeping her guard higher in revelation of a possible nearby panther.

 

Nobody protested with the idea and thought it best to leave the bodies as they were. It was said to be a death sentence to even touch a fresh kill of a panther, and since nobody wished for death to take them away they left the scene undisturbed.

 

"We will have to take the Shadow path. It's the safest and fastest route to be at TonDC by nightfall at the latest." He said looking around to make sure a panther wasn't possibly nearby.

 

He could feel a presence nearby but it wasn’t clear as to being hostile or merely observing their actions.

 

"Very well. Take the lead." Lexa ordered before nodding at the other warriors to keep their weapons close and guard on full alert.

 

Togon quickly led the group into the woods for a little bit before finding a small path. It laid in the shadow of the mountain that many dared not to go near even just for a second. A long time before Lexa’s ascension, people did live in the mountain but a Commander from nearly 80 years ago was said to have taken it down with the help of a traveler that used magic to burn all the people within it. The empty mountain now towered over the villages of Trikru, rumored to still hold the spirits of the mountain men within their stone tomb. Besides the spirits that lurked in that area, it was also said that Pauna and many other mutated predators, made their homes in the space surrounding the base of the mountain and even some living within. Many people often prayed that they would never encounter any of those creatures, but the few who did dare to venture near the mountain never came back and thus it was agreed that the mountain area was banned from entering. A few people would still manage to disobey the order, leading to many empty funeral pyres and heartbroken families, but it was usually obeyed in fear of keeping one’s life.

 

Shadow path was essentially the entrance to the realm of the dead, being the very border of the mountain territory and what many called the gates into hell. It scared all warriors of every age, from every clan, and very few could actually walk this path without getting attacked by a predator of some sort. Part of those warriors were Anya and Lexa, and Togon. All had been raised in the village of TonDC and the elders that knew the path taught a select few on how to cross relatively safe down the path and to your destination. The path itself was one that connected to many different clans without much change of the terrain, but it was the fear of being mauled to death by whatever the shadows of the mountain held that stopped many from ever attempting to use their knowledge of said path.

 

The group continued traveling for awhile, many already weary of the area they were now passing by, before Lexa and Anya felt a disturbance in the trees around them. Their ears had noticed the small sound of birds singing and the brisk fall breeze rustling the branches and leaves above them, but now there was absolutely no sound of Mother nature surrounding them. The silence seemed to be almost suffocating against the group, knowing that it was unnatural for such a place that was undisturbed by any clan, to hold no sound. They continued moving but Lexa now held a tighter grip on the reins and checked every side of the forest with every hoofbeat of her own stallion.

 

The group was silent now, seeming to just realize how quiet the woods now came to be, the only noise that could be heard was the sounds of the hooves crushing leaves and twigs among the path and the heavy breathing of each mighty beast. The silence was getting out of hand, causing even the horses to become somewhat restless, then a bird call broke the spell causing many of them to let out a slight breath of relief.

 

It was a light sound of a careless woodpecker call. It sounded bright and full of life to spare before the forest went dead once more, but this time holding another presence within its roots. The group could feel a set of eyes being trained solely on them in the eerie shadow of the bushes and tree trunks on either side of them. Before Lexa could tell Anya anything, the raid began.

 

It all went down to fast to even process and before Lexa knew it an object came hurtling towards her, knocking all the air within her lungs out with a harsh weight pulling her off her horse. She attempted to grab onto anything to keep her steady but the weight attached to whatever had her was far too heavy for her unprepared state. Her body slammed against the ground, nearly twisting her ankle within the stirrup of saddle, while everyone else soon followed her fate. Now slightly dazed and frustrated, Lexa struggled to get up and grab her weapon, but her arms were reluctant to leave her sides. She could feel something tight against her biceps and forearms before finally having the patience to examine herself, quickly finding the problem as to how she was taken down and why her arms failed to leave her sides. An intricately handmade bolas wrapped tightly secured around her entire torso, leaving no room to move and an even less chance to escape from it. She continued struggling in an attempt to see if maybe it contained a flaw within its ropes, before giving up and now taking the time to look around at her company to see anyone had not fallen to the same attack as her. To her surprise, all of them had been caught in the same way, all of them on the ground struggling against the thick ropes tied to perfectly sphered hunks of metal. She made eye contact with Anya, who looked just about ready to bite the ropes at this point, having a quick conversation via eye contact that consisted of asking if they had seen who had shot them down, could they reach their weapons, and fearing to the safety of both the group and themselves. It was a quick few silent seconds between the two, surrounded by the grunts and growls of their travel companions and the panicked huffs and stomps of their horses before Lexa agreed to announce a few orders at her group. She looked directly towards them and nearly announced her words before she was interrupted by the sound of heavy boots crunching the branches directly behind her.

 

Her eyes widened just a fraction from the slight fear she held form the circumstance before whipping her head around and seeing 2 figures dressed in lightly faded dark black hoods with swords straps to their backs and animal bone masks adorning their faces, leaving only their eyes to be seen clearly beside the yellowish white of the skulls of what appeared to be the Trikru wolf and some other animal skull. The unknown skull could not be fully determined due to the obstructed view from the hood they had put up.

 

Everyone froze when the figures made themselves known, dressed in a similar style to Azgeda and Louwoda Kliron assassins, before immediately beginning to struggle once more with a  renewed strength provided by fear of their lives. Out of everyone in the group, Lexa was the smallest, therefore she was the closest of being free from her bounds but the sound of crunching leaves directly beside her body followed by the feeling of a stinging concussive blow against the right side of her skull had her down once more.

 

Her vision went black for what felt like a few seconds before returning in blurred colors and shapes while the feeling of ropes tightening around her body, twice as tight as before, followed by the sounds of she assumed to be her group receiving the same treatment as her. It took a few seconds after the sudden flood of senses before everything went back to normal and she could now properly make out people and see every detail of the people who dared to ambush the Commander and her royal guards and advisors.

 

Both her and Anya carefully watched as their captors quickly ran towards their horses and began rummaging through their bags, likely looking for anything of high value. They paid no mind to the people on the ground, instead choosing to focus on the somewhat unsettled beasts, specifically the ones in the front of the group, and the small cart they had bought that none of them had noticed before.

 

The group of 3 black dressed robbers worked silent and efficiently, signalling one another only with a varied few hand signals but mainly going perfectly in sync with their actions without much communication whatsoever. The strongest looking one of the group, proudly wearing a bear skull, stayed near the cart, preparing horse harnesses at the front despite having no evidence of any within the area. The other 2 ran to the front, and what they had all assumed to be the one in charge, took out a hand crafted blue edged dual blade and began cutting every bag strap that rested on their horses sides. They simply cut one side of the strap and swiftly pulled them off each horse before tossing it down to more agile one, who would then catch it and toss it down to the person at the cart, who then loaded each up in a certain way without error. They worked without a single error, working far more fluid than most clan armies could ever be. It seemed close to the concept, written within the books of the Polis library, of machines within factories. It seemed flawless and they all almost envyd the coordination displayed within a group of what they now assumed to be clanless rogues who stole for goods and necessities.

 

Lexa and Anya continued to admires their system of movement before realizing that they had all been fooled just hours before. The jackets they wore displayed blood marks that resembled claw marks on their backs, but the theatrics they added earlier were gone and only the stain of fake blood remained. They had been lured off the main road by the most common trick in the book. Lexa regretted not turning over the bodies now but the damage was done. A new found respect for thieves carefully made space deep within her mind due to the display before her very eyes.

 

All of Lexa's warriors were now yelling and trying their absolute hardest to free themselves from their traps but their robbers clearly didn’t half ass any of their hand crafted tools. It seemed as if every part used had been carefully crafted to provide them every passing second they needed to steal whatever they chose within their victims. 

 

Lexa now finished internally praising the people that continued to rob her group then began to struggle against the ropes once more while watching them work. She had noticed that they had completely skipped over Anya's horse and her own but continued their system on the rest of the horses. It slightly relieved Lexa seeing them pass her bag and not take the ring, but she had an unsettling feeling deep within her gut that felt that it would get worse for her fairly soon. She thanked the spirits either way for letting them pass over her bag, but she failed to take into consideration that the spirits favored Ghosts. Especially those who steal from the Commander.

 

They had finally stripped all of their supplies and loaded it all within their cart in a matter of what seemed to be a little over 2 minutes at most. The bear masked one near the cart suddenly pulled out a large rope strapped to her waist and tossed it to the unknown masked one, who wore some strange piece of metal attached to her hip. The wolf masked one who helped with the horses then jumped onto the back of the cart, seeming far to playful, while the other 2 tied the rope to the wagon handles and then began walking towards the 2 horses they had left untouched earlier. Carefully grabbing the reins of the still slightly startled beasts, they softly stroked them before gently leading them towards the harnesses on their cart. Once both horses had settled down they quickly worked to tie both Anya's and Lexa's beloved horses to their stolen getaway vehicle. Their strong standing broad shouldered stallions stood in contrast to one another, Anya’s being an all black stallion with only a single stripe of white going directly down its face, while Lexa’s was a full white stallion with light grey speckles going down its spine and lightly on its face.

 

The bear skull one jumped atop Anya's horse with ease while the one with the strange metal item on their hip nodded at the other 2 and then approached the people they seemed to have forgotten on the ground during their robbery. The one on the wagon now jumped off the wagon and approached with their leader, holding their head up high with a wolf skull seeming to smile on its own. It was then that all the group realized that their robbers were girls looking at the designs of their clothes and how they had a feminine curve along their sides.

 

From the ground Lexa was able to see the leader's face more clearly, a few strands of light colored hair and the mask of the girl properly. It was the skull of a panther fitted to cover all her face almost perfectly except her eyes. It had what appeared to be blood covering the teeth, looking as if it had just recently killed an animal just seconds before, while an Azgeda and Boudalan warpaint design covered the sides and the rim of the eyes. The entire mask was emitting death but her eyes said something entirely different.

 

Her eyes were what truly blew Lexa way.

 

They were a beautiful shade of an indescribable vibrant and brilliant blue. No words could do the color justice but it was more than that.

 

The emotion within those eyes weren't that of a common robber's eyes. These eyes held raw emotions of pain, anger, sorrow, and were haunted by something else that only very few could ever identify after going through the same circumstance. These eyes had seen many things but right now they completely dismissed Lexa and instead turned to the rest of her company.

 

The wolf mask girl took one of the leader's blue edged blades and followed the direction of the leader. The leader stopped while the wolf skull approached Togon, Linux, Henber, and Abter with full rage coursing through her body.

 

Before anyone could realize what she planned on doing, she swiftly lifted the blade up and brought it down on the knees of Henber, pulled it out then swiftly stabbed the blade into Linx’s gut. Their pain filled cries ran rampant through the woods along with the shock of everyone else. The blade was then stabbed into shoulder of Abter and twisted ever so slowly, clearly a torture method, before being pulled out roughly.

 

Blood surrounded that side of the group while everyone away from it watched as the girl in the wolf mask finally stepped aside from her handy work. Nobody noticed the other robber get off of Anya's horse, take out an axe, then bring it up and slam it down upon Togon's left wrist, cutting it clean off without warning.

 

His screams now filled the woods, followed by the repeated sound of kicking and punching delivered to each of their bloody bodies. Anyone with eyes could see the rage built up within these girls was all personal. This was a revenge hit and the Commander just happened to be an extra bonus.

 

The robbers suddenly stopped hitting the men and stepped aside for their leader. Lexa watched as she stalked up to her best warriors, mimicking the very movements of a panther, nothing but confidence flowing off her, then she suddenly pulled up her sleeve revealing a marking. It was an intricate design that swirled around her forearm.

 

Lexa had no idea what it meant but apparently Togon, Abter, Linux, Henber, and even Anya seemed to know it. The leader's companions went back to their original spots on the wagon and Anya's horse and simply watched with hard eyes at their leader’s next moves.

 

Togon suddenly started looking extremely panicked and instantly started babbling.

 

"I-I didn't... I was doing m-my job! They were going to k-kill...m-me" He quickly spewed out before tears started forming in the corner of his eyes.

 

Anger quickly took over the girl's eyes as she took out the metal piece from her waist and pointed it towards Togon, Abter, Linux, and Henber.

 

"Surprise bitches." The silence of the forest now kneeled before her cold voice before the sound of 4 loud bangs followed.

 

Lexa never really got scared, but hearing this mystery loud sound never before surely scared the crap out of her. Her eyes shut on their own accord while her body instinctively flinched at the unfamiliar noise. She could hear the horses panic and run off in different directions, somehow avoiding to kill anyone in their stampede. Once her eyes opened she looked towards her warriors only to see blood dripping from their foreheads and temples while wide fear induced eyes stared blankly ahead.

 

Without another word the girl turned around, quickly went to Lexa's horse, hopped on with the grace of the forest behind her, then shouted a command, and the horses were off. Lexa took a few seconds to realize that she had been robbed by the infamous Ghosts, had her most trusted and high trained warriors killed right beside her, but the fact that the leader had just killed them with a strange weapon of some sort that seemed to involve almost no physical effort.

 

It took another minute or 2 before the rest of Lexa's group was able to get out of their shocked states and help free one another, through the force of many uncomfortable positions and using a small rock on the road to cut part of the ropes. Their group of 8 strong was now down to 4 with no horses or supplies, directly under the shadow of the beast infested mountain. Once it really settled in Lexa what had just happened, she realized that they had the ring now.

 

"DAMN THE SPIRITS!" Lexa suddenly yelled, startling everyone who was still recovering from watching their friends be mercilessly killed.

 

They knew about Lexa's intentions for their stay in TonDC, but they thought Lexa was carrying the ring on her and not in her bag. Thinking now, it would have been a smarter idea seeing as they could have avoided part of their large situation that was now larger with Lexa’s new problem. They stared at Lexa for a bit to make sure their own lives weren't in danger before looking up and down the path trying to figure out how they were going to head to TonDC without their main guide who knew this exact part of the Shadow path.

 

The 4 people they killed were the ones who knew this exact part of Shadow path the best so they were slightly screwed as to getting back home safely without getting injured by all the predators that lurked around them.

 

Lexa looked at her group before shaking her head and rubbing her temples.

 

It was going to be a long day.


	2. Ghosts are Often Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The background of our famous Ghosts are revealed along with the tale as to why they had aimed towards the royal guard.

A normal day for Clarke wasn't as normal as everybody else in the clans.

 

Sure she woke up to get dressed for her job but her occupation wasn't really one that was common, or loved in the slightest bit.

 

Clarke was a highly skilled grifter with all the techniques to ensure survival with her. She wasn't just any grifter, she was the leader of the best known group of grifters out there.

 

The Ghosts.

 

The best grifters that ever came to be within the 12 clans, with hardly any descriptions on them. Other then the fact that they worked fast, smooth, and disappeared without a trace, nothing more could be said. She couldn't take all the credit of their accomplishments and multiple titles though. She shared it evenly with her 2 best friends, Raven Reyes and Octavia Blake. The unmistakable, untouchable, dynamic trio.

 

They definitely never thought their lives would end up like this, but then again you never hear stories anymore of people living within the clouds, floating amongst the sky. Many people thought it was fake but they knew the stories were real because they were once living in the legend. It was their home that they often missed, containing their only blood family. They once belonged on the Ark. Their original birthplace that was likely simply floating within the atmosphere, acting a metal coffin to everything and everyone they once knew.

 

~~~ _ Flashback _ ~~~

 

They were sent down here due to the valiant efforts of Clarke's parents. Her father, Jake Griffin, had found out the Ark would die in a matter of months from a failure within the oxygen system which led him to worry about his family and the wellbeing of every who lived in the Ark. He told his discovery to Clarke's mother, Abby Griffin, and both knew that they needed to protect their family with any means necessary.

 

The trio were friends during this time after meeting through series of incidents that led Clarke and Raven to discover a hidden Octavia. They had all become friends and bonded with one another, under the protective eye of Octavia's older brother, Bellamy. Abby knew about Octavia but never turned her in, knowing that the single child rule within the Ark would cost the girl her life along with her mother’s life. She quickly grew to love the girl like her own, often bringing extra food to the Blake residence and offered medical check ups to the hidden girl to avoid any possible illnesses she could have gotten from living within her small space.

 

The Griffin family had taken a liking into the Blake's as well as taking in the young genius, little Raven Reyes. Clarke's dad had started showing Raven how to be an engineer at the small age of 9, which she had eagerly picked up with ease. It was a happy life for the trio, but they didn't know just how dark their days would grow far too soon.

Abby and Jake instantly told Octavia’s mother about their discovery, and they all agreed that they needed to protect their children if the Council didn’t act the way they had hoped once telling them. Jake quickly went to work on trying to figure a way to save their kids at the very least. It took him a few days before he realized there were still emergency pods left, after stumbling upon them during a routine check up in Beta Station. They were near the chancellor's office so he had to be extra careful. He was able to find 1 fully functioning one, but it could only hold 3 people at most. They needed to make a decision soon before the council could act whatever their decision was.

 

Abby and Jake talked with Octavia's mother before coming to the agreement let the 3 girls go in the pod and land on Earth. They thought it best for them to have a chance at life then no life at all. It took 2 and a half months to fix the pod, without Chancellor Jaha knowing, before Jake decided he should inform the public of his discovery since the council was taking far too long to come to a decision. Clarke overheard him one night getting ready to tell the residents of the Ark, and told her father she would help in any way possible. It took some convincing, but eventually Clarke convinced him to let her help. They were both going to announce it together without Abby knowing, but their plans were cut short in the middle of the night.

 

Clarke had been shaken awake by her mother who simply informed her to get dressed and gather her favorite belongings into a bag. Clarke was confused and worried about why her mother looked so scared, but followed the instructions nonetheless. She quickly got changed and then gathered her lion stuffed animal, her baby blanket, and a picture of the Griffin family taken when she was 5 years old. Once done, Abby came back and told her that they were going to play a game with Raven and Octavia.

 

Abby ushered them out of their living quarters and down the halls, past the med bay and towards the chancellor's section of the Ark. It confused Clarke, but the rules of the game were to be quiet and careful, like a ninja. Clarke assumed that's what they were playing until they reached their destination. Her father was working on a panel of circuits, while Octavia's mom held both her and Raven close. Bellamy stood watch on the other corner, checking for any possible guard patrols coming their way.

 

"Jake." Abby whispered.

 

He turned around to see his little girl for the last time, causing pain to grow deep within his chest, but he knew it had to be done if she had a chance of living. A friend in the guard had told Jake that Jaha had found out his plans to announce to the residents of the Ark of the imminent oxygen failure, and was going to execute both him and Clarke for knowing far to much and public endangerment. It was completely absurd but Jaha was the kind of man to do such a cruel action on a matter such as this. He had told everyone else of the warning he had received, and they had all decided it was time to save their children. Jake went to Raven's living quarters, knowing it was empty of her alcoholic mother, and woke her while Octavia's mom got all of Octavia's things and told Bellamy what was happening. It was sudden but this was their only opportunity to do their plan without much error.

 

Jake had taken a guess that the earth would be survivable by now seeing as the Ark had stayed alive for just a little over 100 years already, giving possibly just enough time for the radiation levels to go down enough for them to survive.

 

"Alright. It's done." Jake whispered then opened the door to the pod, a silent hiss of air flooding the silent corridor they currently occupied.

 

Bellamy heard him before quickly coming to join them.

 

"Mom, what's going on?" Clarke finally asked, which Octavia and Raven both looked to know the answer.

 

Abby felt like breaking down, knowing she was about to send her only child down to earth alone. She couldn't handle it so Jake quickly took this hit before she spoke and broke down directly in front of their daughter.

 

"This is all part of the game sweetheart. You, Raven, and Octavia need to go in that door and stay hidden. You can't make any noises and most of all, you need to be brave." Jake said gently grabbing, crouching down directly in front of her, placing both hands against her shoulders and holding back his own tears.

 

Clarke looked at him, confused as to why all the grown ups were looking sad at their game. Games were supposed to bring joy to whoever played them which caused her to begin disliking it if it made her own parents cry.

 

"Be brave no matter what happens and take care of each other." Jake said trying to sound as strong as possible but this was his last goodbye so a few cracks were evident within his voice.

 

He looked away from Clarke for a split second to see Octavia's mom and brother saying a few things before embracing her in a large hug. Abby was talking to Raven for another second before pulling her in a hug and now it was his turn to do the same.

 

"I love you no matter what, Princess. You’re a Griffin and Griffins survive anything." He said before pulling her in a large hug and holding her close.

 

Tears threatened to spill from his eyes once Clarke hugged back nearly twice as hard as him, subconsciously knowing that this would be the last time she could see her father.

 

"I love you too daddy. I'll be brave and look after everyone." She said strongly and proud.

 

He was reluctant to let go once he realized this really was a final goodbye. He would never see Clarke grow up, possibly get a date, threaten said date, or embarrass her beyond measure in front of her friends. He wouldn't grow old and have to tell Clarke that he could do things himself as she tried to help him. He wouldn't even be able to grow old with his own wife, quickly coming to the conclusion that this was going to be their last moment together as a family.

 

He remembered first holding Clarke as a newborn baby, changing her diaper, putting a bandaid on her small cuts after tripping within the metal corridors, or watching old soccer games on their couch. He remembered the first time he played chess with Clarke and how excited she was when she first beat Jake when she was just 6. It was cute to see her celebrate even if he had let her win. He was going to miss her but it was for the best.

 

He finally let go once he realized that if didn’t let go now, he might never, then looked to his wife standing there wanting to say her goodbyes as well. He let go then walked back to the pod, getting final preparations ready to distract his tears from pouring out of his eyes without end.

 

"Clarke, sweetie, just remember to look after one another and know that your dad and I love you with all our hearts. We'll always be watching you no matter what." Abby said giving Clarke a small smile while she fought back the tears, not hugging Clarke yet in fear of spilling out the loud sobs just behind her eyes.

 

At this point Clarke knew something was up, but she also saw how much it hurt her parents so she decided to not say anything about it and simply enjoy the warm feeling of each hug. She quickly hugged her mother instead, holding her tight knowing somewhere in the back of her mind, this could be the last.

 

At this action Abby did let a few tears out and held Clarke close, as if she were her lifeline. She sighed heavily before pulling Clarke back and taking one last good look at her daughter. She wished to see her daughter grow up to be a beautiful woman, but sadly that day wouldn't come. Abby then looked at the lion Clarke still held onto and decided to do something really quick. She had hid a note in the lion many days before, knowing the day to send them down was coming closer.

 

"Clarke, I want you to do one thing for me and your dad. Do you think you can do it?" Abby asked looking lovingly at her sweet baby girl.

 

Clarke nodded and continued to listen.

 

"Keep Mr. Ragtag close and tight. He'll protect you no matter where you go or however far you stray. One day he'll explain to you everything that we’re doing right now. Promise me you'll keep him close." She said holding back a sob threatening to escape her lips.

 

"I promise mommy. I always keep Mr. Ragtag safe." Clarke said feeling sad now.

 

Abby nodded then look at everyone else who appeared to be waiting for her. She sighed before getting back up and leading Clarke to the pod. One by one the girls went in and one by one their families said their final goodbyes. They gave them all their bags then Jake dropped in another saying it was a surprise bag. He buckled them in one by one then all families went to one girl for the last talk. Jake went to Raven, Abby to Clarke, and Bellamy to Octavia. Her mother couldn't handle the pain anymore so he volunteered to be her last goodbye for both of them. They were going to sedate them to make the trip less terrifying and for the impact to be less hurtful, at least until they woke up.

 

"Be brave my little Griffin. I'll always love you." Abby said before injecting the sedative in Clarke.

 

~~~ _ End of Flashback _ ~~~

 

Those were the last words Clarke ever heard from her mother. By the time they woke up, they were greeted by the curious faces of a young warrior and her wife who had been recently exiled after getting accused of a murder. Their son had just died from a sickness but everyone thought they had killed him, for reasons nobody cared to list. The chief knew they were innocent but for their own protection, he banished them to avoid a bloodier scene. 

 

Seeing 3 small children, alone within a strange structure, made them very sympathetic.

 

The couple was Aella and Tyri from a village near the capital of Ouskejon Kru. They were headed to Azgeda in hope of being accepted into a  village at the outskirts of their territory that often housed exiles of other villages. They stumbled upon the pod when crossing through Trikru territory. At first they thought they could salvage the parts, but once they opened the doors they had woken the 3 sleeping girls and watched as their postures changed from sleepy to fear in an instant.

 

Tyri didn't like the idea of taking in all the children but Aella quickly convinced her with a pleading look. That and the threatening look when Vern tried to challenge her about it.

 

"Don't be afraid little ones. We won't harm you." They said in Trigedasleng, hoping it would soothe the children hearing a somewhat native tongue after being left in the middle of one of the most dangerous forests in the clans.

 

They watched as the children looked at them completely confused, and somewhat frightened, before the middle child looking one spoke.

 

"What station speaks that language?" She asked looking confused, attempting to hide the fear that spoke so clearly within her eyes, with a touch of anger.

 

Tyri and Aella were taken back at how well the child knew the language that only skilled warriors knew so well. They all had to be no less than 8 summers, at the very least, and they didn't dress even dress as a warrior’s apprentice in the slightest.

 

"You speak gonasleng? How is that possible?" Aella asked looking at the children, wondering what kind of parent would teach their children the tongue of warriors and then leave them to be eaten by wolves.

 

"Gona-what?" The youngest asked which earned her a glare from the light haired girl.

 

"Octavia stop talking.Mom told us not to talk to strangers." The girl quickly said while taking off the piece of fabric that confined her to the chair she sat on.

 

Tyri and Aella knew these children would get themselves killed if they wandered out alone, with no training or weapons to protect them in such an unforgivable land, so they quickly introduced themselves and attempted to explain in the simplest terms as to what was going on. They hoped to take the children with them, offer a home that they clearly needed now, and slowly they began trusting them before finally stepping outside their metal contraption. They seemed to be getting comfortable with the banished warriors, but almost instantly became quiet again once more. They had carried their bags full of supplies along with other strange materials while the blonde child held tightly onto a toy similar to the man eating beasts that resided within Yujleda territory.They worried for their sudden silence and came up with the idea to distract them by asking them questions of where they came from and how they came to be alone in the forest. The distracting part of their plan worked but the answers they got confused them even more.

 

The blonde and tanner brunette told them that they came from a place within the sky called the Ark. They explained what they had thought happened to them and how the blonde’s father placed them within the pod as part of a game involving whatever ninjas were. None of the stories they told made any sense to either of them but they nodded either way just to reassure them. Their fake reassurance worked and soon enough they had all introduced themselves and explained more parts of their life within the sky. Halfway through explaining the jobs their parents had, and what the blonde girl’s father had found, did they realized that it was no longer a game like their parents had said. They had been saved from a terrible fate but they now had to live a life without their families ever again.

 

Tyri and Aella both watched as the children realized what their families had sacrificed for them and now would have to live without a family. Without hesitation on their behalf they offered to give them protection and shelter, offering to give them a home with the little they had paired with unconditional love that could rival any family. With some hesitation they agreed to go with the couple, out of fear of getting eaten by the predators around the area or from people around the area.

 

They traveled for days, attempting to find a place within any village they passed, but always getting rejected for having marks that represented Ouskejon Kru and having children that held no knowledge of anything that could possibly get them an apprenticeship. After a few more rejections, the couple decided that they didn't need a clan to survive, having traveled through each of the clans enough to know the dos and don’ts, and they enjoyed their new life with their newly adopted family. The girls felt the same way, leading to the construction of a small home hidden between the thick forest borders of Azgeda and Trikru for the rest of their lives. It was a year later that they would meet a group of highly trained thieves, who offered them all positions within their ranks if, and only if, they helped them dodge a large group of warriors from the nearby village of TonDC.

 

They agreed only out of curiosity as to how good the group was and quickly hid them within their home that ran through a series of caves hidden by thick bushes that no one ever noticed. Once the warriors passed, they group talked to them and showed the small rogue family what they had stolen. It was a large haul taken straight from the TonDC village vault which had impressed Aella and Tyri, seeing as they themselves use to be thieves before settling in their old village. It took a quick talk and a few days of living with the thieves before they had a whole new family of adoptive misfits. 

 

Their new family/bandit gang consisted of 10 people. 6 guys, 4 girls, and a large, relatively normal, wolf who they counted as a person because of its habits. The six men were Seiko, Esman, Lukas, Rye, Cerban, and the leader Kalger. The four women were Jinx, Cahira, Emlyn, and Terra. The wolf was a male named Mizo that loved Jinx, but hated everyone else. He had hated their new home but once meeting the girls, he now had new favorites and only they could reduce him down to his puppy days.

 

They all quickly accepted their new family of 15, and each one taught the others something new, mainly teaching the troublesome trio. They slowly started training the girls to be as good as they were when it came to being a thief. They taught them fighting techniques from each clan, using almost every kind of weapon, teaching them each con in the book, and training them in the art of stealth on any terrain. Within the time span of 4 years, all 3 girls were good enough to fend for themselves and were allowed to join their heists. Over time the girls proved to better at the job than anyone could have thought. They had taken many of the old plans and improved them in many different ways at the still young ages of Raven and Clarke being 14, and Octavia 12. They could perform every plan on their own within any clan without getting caught, making the art of thieving look even more flawless than before. With their accomplishments, they were able to get their group's honorary bandit mark on their forearms, signifying their status within the clans having rank within the small hidden markets and villages run by other bandits. Despite the achievement many expected the girls to leave their sides and become their own group like any other thief would after receiving their marks, but their surprise the girls stayed with them, claiming that, “family means nobody gets left behind.”

 

They continued to call Tyri and Aella their mothers, while calling everyone else either their Aunt, Uncle, or crazy cousin. It was a good life but they did have their sad days. The saddest of them all to the girls was the day Mizo died of a panther attack when Clarke and Raven were just 15. The friendly wolf lost his fight after protecting everyone from a panther attack, but in the end he simply couldn't take down the panther on his own. Jinx carried his body back to their home from where they had been confronted by the Trikru forest beast and the 4 girls cried the most for the loss of their beloved family member. After his death panthers became more of a problem and they continued to learn their lesson the hard way. They lost Rye and Lukas half a year after they lost Mizo, causing the group to get into a new passions of hunting panthers down in the names of their fallen blood. 

 

They all quickly picked it up, but not without a few marks to prove it. Terra had gotten scars across her face, Cerban had been gifted with a nasty leg scar of a panther’s bite, Esman lost his left hand from battling 2, Tyri had the worst scars going down the right side of her torso from one of the largests panthers to ever be seen, and Seiko had gotten a nasty scar running across his neck after getting clawed by the ‘King’ panther of the forest.

 

Despite not killing the beast, he was able to survive it which nobody in the clans had ever done. His joy of surviving the attack came at the cost of losing the use of his voice forever, but everyone knew him well enough that he didn't need to talk to have a conversation with them. It wasn’t a safe life to live but the family of misfit bandits would have it no other way. Yet with each attack the Ark trio and a burning need to go after the ‘King’ of the forest btu were constantly prevented by their mothers lectures and their family’s warning. They continued to follow their lectures up until Seiko’s wound had happened and the consequences showed themselves once the wound was healed shut. They agreed to go after the panther in the middle of the night while everyone else slept, hoping to receive an eye for an eye for all the blood the panthers had stolen from their family.

 

They knew where it lived thanks to Seiko, but Aella and Tyri were quick to warn and threaten  to not go after the man killer. Sadly, the girls failed at following orders that came in between their plans. 

 

It took them nearly 2 weeks after getting threatened that they put their plan into use and went after the panther in the middle of the night. They found the panther within the darkest part of the forest, slightly closer to Azgeda’s border, and only stumbled upon it after it elegantly emerged out of a bush that covered a cave entrance and watched as it roared in a far to regal manner for a mere beast, warning the 3 young girls before they officially challenged it. The obsidian black fur was riddled with scars all along its body, both old and new often meeting but still looking as if each belonged on its royal body and giving its title of being King of the land. It was a little more than half the size of Clarke on all fours, its head being able to bite into Clarke's stomach easily if given the chance. The girls became unsure of their plan but were quick to push the thought aside and officially set the challenge with the lift of their blades.

 

The beast gave a quick roar, as if accepting the new fighters, before tensing its muscles and going into a low crouch ready to pounce. It was a few seconds of silence before the mighty panther leapt at them. The fight quickly escalated after its first movement. The girls worked as a team, using quick movements to dodge the beasts for as long as possible before slashing at it from all sides, its skin being to thick to simply stab. Their plan was working for a bit before the panther saw an opening between their movements and began to single down each and everyone of them. Soon enough Octavia received deep claw marks on her left shoulder and a decent bite on her right calf, quickly falling out of the fight from her blood gushing wounds. The next to go was Raven, getting taken down by a full speed body slam against a tree after getting swatted away by a massive paw, feeling similar to a regular body slam, both hits causing the latina to knock out with broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder from hitting the tree trunk. The panther itself seemed to puff out its chest in pride for taking down the 2 girls before focusing all its attention of the blonde who stood weak from the wounds she had received.

 

Clarke was sporting deep wounds on her right bicep, lower left side of her torso near her stomach, and a few shallow cuts on her face. She clearly looked to be in pain but her strength wouldn't waiver a single moment after seeing her sisters fall at its paws. She stood her ground and simply kept remembering the last words her parents had told her, continuing to be brave and protect her family.

 

Despite the panther’s strong stance and focus, it wasn't doing so well either. They had gotten good hits on the panther after softening its thick skin with their earlier attacks. They managed to get a few stabs in its back, get deep slices on its legs, and Raven had managed to get arrows to pierce into its sides, and Clarke was able to get its face a few times with her hand made blue tipped steel blades.

 

The panther and Clarke circled one another for awhile before their patience wore thin and both went for each other at the same time, knowing that this was the final stand between the girls and death. It was impossible to tell if any of the 2 were getting any hits on each other, with the panther covering them from both Raven and Octavia's view. It was another few minutes before they heard a loud warrior yell from Clarke, and the loud furious roar from the panther, ring through the forest for one last charge on both their parts.

 

They watched as the mighty obsidian body slumped over but there was no sign of Clarke and no voice to be heard to tell them that their sister lived. Raven and Octavia looked at each other trying to figure out if one had survived or if they both killed one another, before all their thoughts were stopped by the sudden movement the panther's body started to make, lifting itself off the ground. 

 

Fear quickly spiked within them but they were too injured to move anymore, so if the panther did stand as the victor, they were okay with dying but saddened for leaving their adoptive family in such a cruel way.

 

They watched the black body sway and shake before it suddenly fell on its side revealing an exhausted, pain filled, yet extremely relieved, looking Clarke. Her sword was coated in a dark, rich, red wine, blood while the wound from the panther's chest now oozed out the last of its life.

 

"It was knife to meet you asshole." Clarke joked while dropping her arms in exhaustion and finally having a moment to catch her breath.

 

Raven and Octavia immediately started laughing while holding their injuries the best they could, helping each other up and walking towards their equally broken sister. They couldn't believe Clarke had managed to kill what might’ve been the largest panther to ever live, but she also managed to make a horrible joke after surviving its claws.

 

"You alright Griff Griff?" Raven asked while keeping Octavia steady while she laughed at her display.

 

"Define alright Reyes, because I know for sure that I've had better days that were similar to this." Clarke joked before attempting to get up.

 

Her pained groans and failed attempts were slightly amusing to watch before she finally stood up, leaning against the corpse of the infamous King of the forest for support. A large smile quickly made itself known on her face, pride of what they had accomplished wanting to shine while also in a weak attempt to hide the pain running throughout her body.

 

"Can you guys walk or do we have to carry each other somehow?" Clarke asked catching her breath and watching Raven with tired eyes.

 

Raven was fine enough to walk, with minor support, but Octavia had the largest wounds that bled the most and looked just about ready to pass out within seconds

 

"O is going out soon so we need a stretcher to drag her in." Raven explained.

 

Clarke groaned and the new problem, knowing that she needed it but worried as to how they could find something large to carry her in that was close by and easy to attain. The worry was answered once she put her head in the soft fur of the beast. Without another thought she quickly gripped her sword once more and began skinning the panther, thinking of using the large pelt to drag their youngest sister back home. Raven watched over O while Clarke worked her fastest and in a little under an hour, Clarke had skinned, mostly cleaned the bloody part, and covered the fresh meat side with leaves to prevent Octavia from laying in the bloody flesh of the fallen beast. While skinning the black beauty, she had discovered that the supposed King of the forest was actually a Queen. She had skinned a large majority of the beast but completely severed the head to take back to their family and possibly keep the skull as a reminder of their accomplishment.

 

They loaded Octavia onto the skin then grabbed the corners and started dragging with the remaining strength they had. They moved about 30 feet before they passed another cave that looked similar to where the panther had first emerged, stopping at the sudden noise that rang out of the stone. It sounded similar to a roar but much smaller, as if it were deep within the cave and the final echo died at the entrance. They stopped for a moment before continuing but immediately stopped after hearing the noise a second time. Curiosity and fear sparked within the 2 girls, worried that another panther or some other murderous beast lay within the shadows of the cave, ready to pounce on the girls. They wanted to run but their pride and fear for Octavia and the state she was in caused them to go and investigate the sound. They walked 2 feet into the cave, slightly given the light of the bright moon but mainly surrounded by the dark, before they discovered a small panther cub waddling around and calling out for its mother. Once seeing the 2 girls it yelped in a small way before running, more along the lines of stumbling, behind a rock at the side of the cave. It was then that both girls realized what they had done and the guilt began to make a home within their guts.

 

"Oh crap. Clarke we killed its mom." Raven sighed, feeling guilty of ripping apart the cubs life all for revenge for their own fallen family.

 

"Dammit. That’s probably why it attacked all of us, it thought we were going to kill its baby and went to defend it and not hunt us." Clarke said while kneeling down to look at the small cub.

 

It seemed to have some fear before the new smells mixed with its mother scent caused it to walked towards Clarke then cuddled into her hands almost immediately, smelling its mother the strongest within her hands. It was far to small to be left alone and after the girl's shared one look at each other before they non verbally agreed to take it with them. Clarke carried it to the stretcher then placed it on Octavia who both snuggled into one another once in contact, creating a peaceful scene in a dark world that they had gotten to be darker with their actions. It was another 2 hours before they reached the border of their home, covered in blood, twigs, dirt, and sweat. It took another minute for the angry and worried arms of their adoptive mothers embraced them in a loving hold, having been worried sick after waking and discovering their children to be missing at the crack of dawn.

 

"You’re all getting severely punished once you heal." Aella mumbled into the shoulder of Clarke and Raven before looking down at Octavia who was certainly hugging a sleeping panther cub as if it were a hunting dog pup.

 

Both Aella and Tyri gave them confused and furious looks which both girls simply nervously smiled and replied, “It’s a long story.”

 

It took many hour long lectures from each family member, followed by their own pleading and begging, before they were finally able to convince the family to let them keep the cub after convincing everyone that it could be a good asset to their group. They had all been reluctant but were curious to see if the girls could actually train the small princess of beasts. It came as somewhat a surprise when the girls did manage to train the panther to do most of what they asked it to, while unknowingly giving it the personality of a simple house pet. Clarke and Raven were now 17, Octavia 15, and Artemis, the panther cub, was just turning 3 when the worst day of their family’s lives came crashing in.

 

Despite having their original home between the 2 border they would move to different locations during different seasons to stay alive and keep the heat from their robberies off them. Usually they were never found, but their luck had changed during their move from their Trikru/Azegda cave towards the Trishana lands for the winter, but they didn’t notice that it was the same time the Commander came to TonDC for the winter festival. It often meant that her guards would get drunk and go out into the woods for a fun little hunt, which they tried to avoid knowing that they would be hunted if seen. The guards often never ventured too far, but this time they did and one had barely managed to catch a glimpse of them on a small dirt path far behind them.They quickly turned the hunting game into a real hunt on people. They hated the group of con artist and robbers, knowing that each had bounties on their heads for various crimes within each clan. They had robbed a village very close to Polis and someone was able to catch a glimpse of their jackets which had their forearm design on the sleeve.

 

Aella was the first to hear the hunting horn change to one of warning, quickly followed by drunken angry shouts headed straight for all of them. She quickly ordered all of them to split with their gear, hoping that smaller groups could escape the weapons and guards. Cahira, Esman, Seiko, and Terra all ran one way, Tyri, Clarke, Raven, Octavia, and Artemis ran another, while Aella ran with Jinx, Cerban, Kalger, and Emlyn. The guard group split to go after everyone which led to an entire night of running and hiding from one another.

 

Tyri made sure to push her daughters forwards while keeping Artemis from fighting the warriors that continued to chase them deep into the forest. They heard some of the names being shouted. Often hearing the names Gustus, Anya, and Ryker the most. It took a long chase before they finally managed to lose them after climbing up some trees and hiding Artemis the dense bushes surrounding the base of each tree. The warriors passed directly under them, running past them after a warrior shouted that they could see them up ahead. Once they left a good distance between them, they quickly jumped down from the trees and ran towards their winter home hoping everyone else had received the same fate as they did.

 

They were the first to arrive at their home, a large cabin left behind from the days before Praimfaya. It was a 2 story reinforced structure that had been somewhat overrun by nature but they had cleaned it up a bit and made it their own getaway. They were now tired and dehydrated after losing their water canteens to a small group of vicious raccoons. They all felt a terrible feeling within their guts but set the feeling aside and started setting up their home for when the others arrived. It took about another 2 hours before Seiko's group came with an injured Cahira, who sported an arrow going through her left calf. They asked one another if they saw Kalger or their mother, but no luck was given. It was midday before they finally sent the few able bodies out to find them, then another hour before part of the missing group came back.

 

Had it been any other outcome they all would have been relieved and thankful, but sadly they had gotten the worst outcome of the situation.

 

Emlyn and Cerban were leaning against each other for support, looking similar to walking corpses. Blood oozed out of Cerban's thigh while Jess' face had a busted lip and a large cut down her side followed by a nasty limp. Jinx was able to walk on her own but her shoulder looked out of place and a cut could clearly be seen on her rib cage.

 

Nobody saw Kalger or Aella, and that sent the small family on major edge, mainly the girls and their mother Tyri. Kalger was a father figure to the girl's, and everyone's brother. Aella was basically everyone's mom, often yelling at all of them to behave and eat right, only being passive with her wife Tyri. It was another hour before the group they sent came back, which had Esman, Seiko, and Terra, all came back with dreaded looks and makeshift stretchers. 

 

The girls were the first to run out, worried to see if their mother was with the group and in decent shape. Tyri was the first to notice the group and their makeshift stretchers, automatically feeling dread fill her body, and quickly stopped her 3 daughters from going any further. She didn’t want any of them to possibly witness the lifeless body of their caring mother, hoping to delay what felt to be the inevitable for as long as possible. As soon as the girls stopped and were gathered within the arms of their other mother, everyone else who had return quickly followed out, standing just behind and to the side of the original family. They were quick to stop after taking in the scene directly in front of them, knowing that is was the outcome that none of them wished. They could feel death's presence looming over the returning search group as they walked closer. Everyone remained frozen under the untold spell before it all broke from Tyri breaking down first into denial then sprinting towards the makeshift stretchers.

 

All 3 girls attempted to stop their more stoic mother, but their grip was far to weak from the grief they had felt since seeing the group slowly drag themselves closer while Tyri had held them close while shaking her head and whispering a small prayer in Trigedasleng. She bolted towards the group in the blink of an eye, with anguish written across her face framed by tears of denial that her one love could be dead. The group continued to walk closer then stopped just before Tyri got to them. Nobody dared to move, still standing where they had been and miserably waiting for the confirmation of their worst fear from Tyri.  It was complete silence up until Tyri finally reached the group, after what felt like an eternity, before she reached them. Terra was the only one to not be carrying some part of the stretchers, instead holding onto a wrapped item made out of her jacket looking similar to the outlines of a sword and a bow. Both were the weapons Kalger and Aella never parted with, which continued to confirm their continuing nightmare. Terra was quick to stand in front of Tyri, stopping her from going any further while whispering something in her ear that seemed to be the final piece of confirmation. The sound of the whisper was quickly cut off by the choked sob bursting past the now widowed wife. Once heard, the 3 girls who had fallen from the sky and adopted by the kindness of 2 young warriors, quickly ran towards their heartbroken mother, knowing that they would all need each other now more than ever. 

 

Octavia was the first to reach Tyri, followed closely by Raven, wrapping their arms around her just as her knees gave out next to the stretcher being held by Esman. She automatically allowed all her tears to flow free and directly onto the loving arms of her 2 dark haired daughters. Esman had slowly placed the stretcher onto the floor and walked a few feet away to allow the family a proper space to grieve. They rescue group had already grieved upon finding their fallen leaders. Once laid down, Seiko continued with the other stretcher, having minimal movement under the jacket placed atop Kalger’s beaten body, quickly calling Jinx and Cerban for their healer responsibilities.

 

Esman stayed with the stretcher, knowing that the family would need another shoulder to lean on soon, as he watched Tyri slowly break down her usual stoic demeanor while the girls finally placed their eyes upon the fallen body of their softer mother.

 

The usual radiant skin of Aella was now a ghostly white, only seen on her face seeing as the rest of her body had been covered by their jackets in respect to their fallen sister. Bruises and blood stained her face, yet she somehow looked peaceful where she lay. If it had not been for the blood that was seeping through the jacket directly on her abdomen along with smaller, yet still large, blood stains they would have guessed it to be a painless death. Octavia and Raven held the mother Tyri even tighter while she cried on their shoulders, allowing their own tears to begin pouring out in a deaf plea for it all to be a dream. As the brunettes held their grieving mother, Clarke had collapsed onto her knees next to the body of her beloved mother. She had the same kindness as her actual mother back on the Ark, always worrying for her actions but never being too firm about anything. For the second time in her life she had lost a parent due yet another involvement with higher ranking people who deemed them criminals, when in reality, they only stole so they could provide for themselves and some families they had met within outlying villages within each clan that often struggled to provide for themselves. Silent tears washed down her face as she shook her head in denial that she had failed another parent and wasn’t able to protect her family. She placed a hand over her mouth, covering the sound of a choked sob, while her other hand gently guided itself onto her chest, hoping that maybe the touch of family could possibly bring her back somehow. It was a long shot, but it was all she had left within her slowly breaking mind.

 

A few seconds passed before the sad reality came crashing down. Clarke finally broke down and released every emotion that had bottled itself up to the brim since seeing the group arrive with the. Esman was quick to walk next to her, knowing that her sisters and other mother were currently grieving together, not taking notice of their other sister. He gently picked her off the ground, despite her efforts of pushing him away, and cradled the young girl that he considered to be the sister he had lost before becoming part of this family. They continued to cry and hold each other for what came to be a matter of nearly 2 hours before exhaustion finally caught up to them and the others came to help them inside while Esman and Seiko took the stretcher containing Aella to be placed inside their storage hut that was often used to hold all their cured meat.

 

Once inside, all the girls were placed onto the large couch they had within their main room while they had Kalger currently being treated in a room just down the hall past their kitchen. Kalger had somehow managed to hold off death’s presence just long enough to tell everyone the warriors who had chased them and brutally killed their family member and nearly killing him. He told them the names he had heard and markings he remembered after both he and Aella had gotten the TonDC warriors to chase them instead of the other part of their group. Everyone was glad he was alive, but they still held a great hole within their hearts for Aella who had saved Kalger from a stab aimed for his spine coming from the warrior that held the least of moral dignities.

 

He described each to be part of Heda’s personal royal guard, but none had any honor of a real warrior. Despite being bandits, they still believed in honor amongst warriors which was held within each bandit. Yet these guards had ambushed them and continued to beat them without showing any signs of taking them in alive. He had been especially hateful towards when they beat down on Aella, but honoring her memory by noting that she was able to take down a large majority of them before falling to a wound aimed for him. Despite hearing their pain, they felt closer to their fallen sister/mother and felt it right to bury her now. For now they celebrated the joy of saving one of them, but that feeling was quick to leave the next day.

 

Kalger had quietly died from his injuries early the next morning within his sleep. He had seemed to be winning death’s battle but his body couldn’t take the fight any longer and had let him pass within his sleep within the presence of Cahira and Esman.

 

After that day the group was never the same. 

 

It was a few months later that Cerban and Terra would leave to retire within their home village with the last of their family, then Seiko, followed by Cahira, and finally Jinx. Nobody tried to stop them because nobody had any good reason to. They had been broken from their losses and many of their own bandit spirits had been broken, causing their purpose to be gone and leave an empty space in all of their souls. The group was now down to Esman, Emlyn, Raven, Octavia, Clarke, Artemis, and a very distant Tyri, who now rarely showed emotion except when it came to her 3 children. Nobody could really blame for her personality change, but they did feel hurt every time they saw her cold closed off eyes that use to once sass them all if they were out of line or simply hold a snarky glint.

 

They lacked ehr personality and it was all because she had lost her other half that balanced off her sometimes brash and upfront demeanor. The one person that balanced her was gone but she had put herself together enough to keep her girls safe and in line.

 

Everyone had relatively moved on and continued jobs, often being simple merchants and traders within lesser known decent sized villages. It was all a quiet life up until Octavia caught word from a trader, describing the warriors who had torn apart their family, matching the same description Kalger gave before his last breath. Everyone else had forgotten, but the 3 girls had sworn revenge in the name of their mother and leader Kalger. Octavia was quick to tell Raven and Clarke, and from there they began to form their plan.

 

Sadly, as the planning went further, they had come to the realization that they would need to leave their family for the very simple reason that they would likely try to stop them for their own safety. It hurt to think of but it needed to happen to protect their last parent from any further damage, while having the possibility of avenging one parent’s death. 

 

All 3 left during the middle of the night, leaving a large letter addressed towards Tyri only, and leaving another one addressed to the group. They had told them of their pain and feeling the need to explore the clans now more than ever to possibly lift some of the pain they had been feeling. They didn’t include any part of their plan to prevent them from going after them, but they did promise to visit their mother 2 times a year within their small spring home within Floukru. 

 

They took Artemis and off the 3 girls went, on a mission to avenge their fallen and unknowingly to become legends that would be remembered throughout the history of the clans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaay, I put up another chapter when in reality I should be studying for my SAT this Wednesday. Oh well. Honestly though I'm procrastinating because I'm stressed but this helps calm me. Please enjoy this while I breakdown and then pick myself up to complete my studies. Have a good day and keep yourself pumped that lesbian Jesus' album is going to drop THIS MONTH! Bless Hayley Kiyoko for being the only thing that is keeping my month together.


	3. The Making of a Legend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Clarke, Raven, and Octavia venture out into the woods hoping to get their revenge, they also find their new life's calling.
> 
> Notes will be at the end of this chapter

After leaving unceremoniously from their home, it took a bit of time trying to find a new, suitable,  place that would be their base of operations for their plan and possibly be their home for the rest of their lives if they managed to complete their mission.  It took a lot of searching, looking for a good isolated area that wouldn’t draw attention to them incase someone managed to follow them, or ratted them out, before they finally stumbled upon the perfect place. It was an eventful accident that occured when walking within the Forbidden Lands mountain range.

 

Despite the land being forbidden from entering, all bandits and clanless took the unknown path that had been forged after centuries of bandits had been looking for a route that almost no clan would find or go after. It was a small path, looking eerily similar to ones created by animals, but had been abandoned and was just wide enough to fit a medium sized wagon through without any trouble. They had been passing through it to get from Trikru, through Ouskejon Kru, and safely delivering them within Boudalan’s territory without a single guard post to check them. It was the only path that could take anyone through 5 clans with no trouble from Heda’s laws. 

 

Raven had been the first to see the hidden door, behind bushes and vines, thanks to the unhealthy curiosity Artemis had for the Trikru jack rabbits that lived within burrows on the mountain side. One had scurried by which caused her to chase after it, which forced all 3 girls to go after their beloved companion. Raven had always been the fastest of the group, being the most agile bandits within the clans during their run with their old family. She was able to get over the large roots, dips, fallen logs, and random protruding rocks within record time. Clarke and Octavia weren’t too far behind but she had been the first to arrive to where Artemis was now gently sniffing a jack rabbit hole while using her paw to move some dirt.

 

Just before Raven could scold their overgrown kitten, Artemis had dug a bit more harsh and kicked back a large amount of dirt followed by a rock. Had it not been for Raven’s fast reflexes she would have been hit in the face by the rock, but she managed to dodge it in time. The pieces of earth flew past her and hit the mountain side. 

 

Now anyone else would expect to hear the sound of a stone hitting stone, but this was not the case. It took another second before the distinct sound of a metal cling rang through the ears of the brash latina. She quickly turned around, wondering why the sound of metal came from a rock wall covered in vines and bushes. She carefully approached where she thought the sound came from and examined it. Gently placing her hands against the said haunted domain of a dead civilization, she began feeling for any signs of metal. 

 

It was then that Clarke and Octavia saw her. They were confused as to what she was doing but there answer was quickly answered once Artemis finally paid them a glance. She perked up at their arrival but quickly pounced towards the part of the mountain that Raven was currently feeling up. Her eyes were far better trained than any of theirs so she had quickly caught sight of a small shiny speck, causing her to want to pounce on whatever was causing it.

 

With a gentle nudge, she pushed Raven aside and used her massive paws to clean away the thick vines and easily stomp down the dry brushes. In a matter of seconds, what they originally thought to be the mountain side, had now become a large, rusted, moss covered, metal door with a wheel and a handle.

 

They had only heard stories about the mountain and its past, but never believed any of it to be true due to their outlandish details. It took a few seconds before Raven once again went for the door and began attempting to twist the handle. Both Clarke and Octavia were tentative about opening it but curiosity got the better of them, wanting to know if the legends of the mountain civilization were real, and soon enough all 3 of them were now attempting to open the rusted over wheel. After what felt like an eternity, the rust began creaking and soon the wheel jerked to the side. All of them nearly fell atop one another at the sudden movement, but were quick to catch themselves in hopes of opening the door completely. It took another few minutes of tugging the wheel, pushing past each rusted patch, before the door suddenly let out a large groaning click followed by a large hiss of air being pushed past the cracks of the door. They released their grip on the door while Raven had the honors of pulling the handle to officially see inside. With some effort she managed to pull it open enough for Artemis to slid past, having no time to stop the mighty beast from pushing past them to explore multiple new smells and sounds. All the girls quickly followed after, desperately wanting to know what lay within the stone tomb.

 

They ran down small hall before dim lights began lighting their way, causing the girls to stop, having not seen electricity since their time back on the Ark with their parents. It caused lonely nostalgia to emerge but was quickly stopped by the feeling of their large travel companion rubbing against them. With that they all continued, down the hall and towards a large staircase going far deeper than any of them could’ve ever imagined within the mountain. 

 

The air smelled stale but seemed clean enough that no bodies could’ve decayed within its walls. Another door now appeared at the bottom of the staircase, cracked open and leading towards a fully illuminated hallway. They quickly reached the door and were finally exposed to the wonders of the long lost mountain civilization. 

 

The first thing they had all been exposed was the grand mess hall that held the opposite of what they had thought. In the middle of the room lay a massive grouping of dried bones, ranging from children to adults of all ages. Tattered pieces of clothes adorned their skin while the still nicely furnished hall placed them together under the unity of all the nations flags, ranging from as far as Australia, all the way down to Brazil, up to Greenland. It was a terrible sight to see but they had a feeling that some bodies would have to be within the said stone tomb. They quickly paid their respects before searching the rest of the hidden city within the mountain. The grand facility had a grand total of 7 levels, each focusing on a certain necessity for surviving underground. The top 2 levels held science labs and equipment that they hadn’t seen since the Ark, being slightly less advanced but still holding the aspect of their lost home floating amongst the stars. The next 2 levels were focused on health, holding all machines and vials Clarke used to see her mother work with. She recognised some of the machines and their functions back from when she would watch her own mother treat multiple people on the Ark. They quickly checked to see what still seemed to be functioning well while Raven followed the wires that fed each machine power. She had still remembered the few things she had began to learn under the teachings of Jake, so she had hoped she could continue to maintain the place under relatively good conditions. Once she split Octavia and Clarke explored the final 3 floors. The 5th and 6th floors consisted of the tomb mess hall, a library, rooms full of beds, functioning bathrooms and toilets, and even a training center of sorts. Clarke went back towards the library, hoping to find books that could help them fix some stuff within the mountain, while Octavia continued searching and found a room full of what she remembered to be guns similar to the ones guards on the Ark use to carry.  

 

Both girls quickly checked the remaining parts of the floor before traveling to the very last level, finding Raven within one of the offices, typing on a keyboard before getting angry at something and slamming her fist on the table and allowing a spanish curse to slip past her lips. She quickly stormed out of the room and then took notice of her sisters. She seemed to lighten up, signalling them to follow her towards another side door, into a smaller hallway towards another door. Raven rushed to open the door then ran inside the new dark room. They were quick to follow, entering a dark area before being blinded by bright lights throughout the room.

 

“Tada!” Raven announced proudly, standing in the middle of an empty space.

 

It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the blinding artificial light, but they did and what they saw had them shocked.

 

The walls were lined with vehicles varying from jeeps to dirt bikes and some even having heavy weaponry attached to them. She was quick to explain to them that she had discovered the garage and how it could benefit their future plans. She then told them that the computer she was just on had told her the problems within the facility but she only knew how to deal with a few things while the rest she couldn’t learn unless they had the proper information, which was quickly provided by Clarke’s discovery of the library. Once their worries and problems had been sorted out, each began to pick a certain level to work on, that way the mountain could be fully functioning within a shorter time period while teaching the girls new/old ways.

 

The idea was quickly set into motion and each girl took on a speciality within the mountain.

 

Octavia had chosen to master and understand their new weaponry, sorting each gun by its power, range, and quantity per round. She then took all the useless one and gave them to Raven, who had been searching for scrap metal within the facility to repair other things. To their surprise, Raven did still remember the few lessons she had with Jake Griffin and managed to repair a few things before admitting help and grabbing books for aid.

 

As for Clarke, she had decided to honor her Ark mother’s memory and learn all she could within the medical field, seeing as they now had a full functioning medical floor. She also took it up in honor of her recently deceased mother, who died of wounds that could’ve been fixed if someone had gotten to her in time. With the help of Raven, they managed to get all the machines back to full function while Clarke grabbed every medical book they had and learned every method she could. 

 

While learning for the sake of her fallen mothers’ memory, she also began to renew her love for the arts. She had discovered an entire storage room full of old paintings, sculptures, books filled with poems, and a dvd player besides crates of old CDs. All the materials to create any kind of art were also within the room, causing old fond memories of drawing with her father and mother back on the Ark flooded her mind. She had always had a talent but since coming down to the ground, she hadn’t used it because the new world was solely based on survival, leaving no time to indulge on such a small task. Their lifestyles had never revolved around the aspect of creating, instead their jobs focused on the acts of stealing and occasionally destroying. It wasn't the most moral job, but it was definitely the most exhilarating and the closest thing anyone could get to absolute freedom of mind.

 

After they had all found their passion and gotten to a level that they could all comfortably do each task in their  sleep, they had moved on to see what the control room they had visited on the last level could offer them. Raven had been inside the room since its discovery, using it to see if she could get answers on certain systems that she didn’t understand how to fix, but she hadn’t fully checked all of its systems. She had explained to them that their was another control room, one that could access all of the systems that she had fixed, but that she needed to have both Octavia and Clarke there at the same time. The room could only work if 3 people were at the main stations, allowing for less of a chance of a system overload. 

 

At first they had run into many problems with the controls themselves, seeing as it hadn’t been touched in years and many of the old wires needed fixing. It took a few days to fix before they were finally able to have the entire system back to fully functioning, almost immediately displaying every system both in and outside of the mountain. The entire front wall had turned into multiple giant screens, but all mainly focused on the security camera set up on every exit and entrance, all of them blinking red and stating proximity hazards. Raven quickly fixed the bugs on each camera and narrowed down the ones with actual problems to ones inside caves that held the different beasts that resided within the forest between Azgeda, Trikru, and Ouskejon Kru. 

 

Once the camera problem was fixed, we made sure to change the warnings to only go off if a human presence came by, with the help of Raven. With that problem fixed the control room then continued to display different tasks that needed attention throughout the mountain. It mainly focused on the other weaponry available within the mountain, ranging from missiles and mines all the way up to a chemical based acidic gas that could cover a large area before the doors of their new home. The maintenance update on all of the weapons took a few weeks, mainly getting help from the system before they finally had time to themselves. With their new free time, they decided to train each other with all the new information they learned, first learning all their new armory, which included getting training classes by Octavia, who had almost no sense of discipline until discovering their new weapons. Once her training was halfway done, they began Raven’s crash course on how to fix many systems, repair the vehicles within their garage, and how to check the cameras and chase away any unwanted animal activity, seeing as the only panther they wanted near or inside was their beloved Artemis.

 

With their new home, they were now able to give Artemis a proper space both within and outside of the mountain without much worry about villages spotting their companion and attempting to hunt her down. She had quickly took a liking to their new home, making herself 2 separate beds within the corner of the dinning hall and the other being within a room in between Clarke and Raven’s rooms.

 

She would often sleep more hours than anyone, but when up Artemis would constantly patrol the perimeter of their new home. Whether it be scaring off villagers who dared to get within the mountain’s territory, or simply scare other panthers away, she would be there full front and never faltering. It helped that she managed to grow a few inches taller than her mother, but she had a natural fight within her just like the 3 girls did.

 

It a total of 5 months to have a large majority of the guns relatively mastered, have 3 dirt bikes fixed, painted, and learned, have an entire jeep restored and ready to drive, and create a new look for their own group that would be solely based on their plan to enact revenge on the warriors that killed their family, while imposing their own justice on criminals that have cheated the clan system.

 

They had changed from simple, carefree, thieves to fierce somewhat respectable warriors, that fought and killed for those who could not do it themselves. In a sense, they were a darker version of Robin Hood, still stealing for themselves to get some profit because their new image now demanded a larger stage for crimes.

 

Gone were their simple hood jackets that held their group emblem. They had replaced their entire wardrobe with clothes made only from the pelts of wolves, bears, and panthers matched with new weapons. They had made gloves multiple gloves with claws jutting out of the knuckle part, stretching past their fingers, thanks to the large claws of the local grizzly bears. 

 

The various animal mutations had provided many tools to be acquired in their new arsenal, the bear claws alone could cut through stone with a few swipes, leaving major damage on a person in a matter of seconds. They had only acquired this gift thanks to Octavia's strength and being the one to think of the best way to take down the monstrous grizzly bear, gifting them their new weapons that replaced some of their own knives.

 

With her new found skill focused around delivering large blows and being the groups new muscle, they found it fitting and honorable that most, if not all, of her clothing be made from the bear pelts that often symbolized great strength and was rumored to protect the warrior with the spirit of the fallen beast. Her best piece that symbolized their group and often prompted more to believe in the spirit of the beast was a cloak made from the largest grizzly within Azgeda and Trikru territory. It attached to over her shoulder armor and had a hood that still held the face of the beast, often causing her to look like the bear itself. If anyone were to stand behind her they would believe it to be the bear standing on its own. With the head still attached to it, it gave her a helmet that could take in large blows far better than any other armor in the clans.

 

It had been Raven’s idea to have the skull still attached to it to give her a helmet, designing it so that only her eyes and a small part of the bridge of her nose could be seen between the jaws of the mighty creature. The bottom part of her face and throat were covered by the neck part of the grizzly, allowing her to have a scarf whenever they traveled through Azgeda or simply protect her neck from anything. The bear arms were used as sleeves to cover her gauntlets before connecting with her grizzly gloves.

 

The look was menacing, but the battle scars across its face were an added bonus. From the top part of her spine is where it detached from the armor and flew freely in the air, looking similar to cloaks belonging to warlord chiefs within Azgeda. Overall it radiated the essence of pure strength without mercy, with the courage of every fallen warrior standing behind it.

 

With her new look, Raven had also made a contribution to weapons. She created new arrowheads dipped in the venom of the wolves around the area. Now no book ever mentioned wolves having venom, but it was likely that none of them ever thought on the possibility of genetic mutations due to radiation. Wolves could were now the size of mutated panthers and had the bite strength that could go through nearly any material, until Raven discovered a certain metal that could stop their bites while burning them. With her new discovery, Raven had quickly become master of the wolves so they gave her the same honor as Octavia and made sure almost all her clothes were made of wolf skins. They had gifted her a wolf cloak similar to the design of Octavia's bear cloak, made from an alpha wolf that threatened to take their home, but her sleeves held an extra weapon.

 

Thanks to mutations, wolves had grown large quills on their front legs that ran all down the side of the leg starting from below it's shoulder, ending just above their ankle. It gave Raven extra protection on her arms and another weapon to incopacitate their targets. The wolf skin itself was dark, deep, rich shade of black with just the tips of the hairs on the back sprinkled with silver flakes and the tips of the ears coated in a dominant royal looking gray. Her hood was the same as Octavia's, where only her eyes could be seen through the white fangs of the beast. The bottom half of her face was covered by the fur of the wolf while silver armor covered her chest, legs, and arms. She looked almost similar to the pictures of medieval knights within their old story books but with a touch of barbarian to match their new home within the grounder community. With her body frame and personality though, the look of the wolf fit her perfectly. They were smart creatures, loyal to their pack, many would get into trouble for their curiosity but when given the opportunity to fight, they were a brutal force of nature, which is exactly what Raven Reyes was.

 

As for Clarke, her animal cloak took much longer to create due to the fact that it was made from the shadows of the 12 Clans, the grim reapers of the animal kingdom, kings and queens of any land they stood foot on. The noble black panthers and leopards of the 12 clans was her gifted animal to wear.

 

Now at first Clarke didn’t believe the nightmare provoking beasts to be her own, but Octavia and Raven wholeheartedly agreed that it was the exact embodiment of Clarke when she needed to take lead or simply protect her family. 

 

They were fast, precise, and the beauties of the forest. Rare to be seen and even rarer to walk away alive from. They were both feared and praised in every clan, whether they were the black stealth monstrosities of the Trikru region or the brute built, snow mountain walkers of the Azgeda clans, they were all respected.

 

In Raven's words, they were royalty that take no shit from any living being. They stood their ground to defend their families at any cost, often pushing them beyond any warrior’s endurance and leaving them to be the victors and guardians of the land.

 

They were leaders, which is exactly what Clarke was to them.

 

Warriors from every clan would try and take down the beasts, but the few that survived often carried lifelong wounds that would cause nightmares to the very end of their days. It was only the rumor that the Ghosts were the only known warriors to walk away from a fight, proudly wearing their wounds while carrying their bodies behind them.

 

Rumors spread like wildfire throughout the clans, of the warrior with sun kissed hair who walked into the Trikru forests of Death himself and walked out with his minions bodies dragging behind. Nobody knew the true identity of the warrior except their family, knowing that she was the only blonde warrior that could do anything like that. With the rumor of the panther slayer spreading, Raven came to the conclusion that Clarke’s look needed to be held at the same standard as the twisted stories now being told throughout the clans. It was the tall tales that inspired them to go after a twisted legend themselves.

 

Since arriving on the ground this was the first story they were told by their mothers, in an effort to teach them to be cautious within each territory no matter what. It was a tale of a beast, unlike any other, that resided within the deepest caverns up on the highest peaks of Azgeda’s most treacherous mountain tops. Its size was said to have no comparison to anything within the clans, expect possibly Pauna, but even then it was said to be far larger and easily twice as powerful. It was said to be a hybrid of the fierce ghost leopards of Azgeda and the haunting shadow panthers of Trikru. How such a mix was able to happen, nobody knew, but all the tales always mentioned how its heritage and habitat caused it to have mutations that made the creature seem more demon than anything else. In no way did it look like something that belonged on the ground, even with the 2 faced deers and the quill covered wolves. With its looks the people of Azgeda used their old mother tongue of German to give it the name Teufelstier, the deviled beast.

 

Nobody had ever seen the beast face to face, but there had been many sightings of massive paw prints that matched only a panther’s pattern directly next to kills of 9 foot tall moose carcasses and even the occasional polar bear massacre if you traveled far north enough, near the frozen lakes towards the edge of Azgeda’s borders, connecting the very last villages before going out into the unknown that was the Dead Zone. 

 

Despite Clarke’s worry for the adventure, she still went on with it just out of a grand curiosity to see if the beast was real, and to see if they could indeed take it down like their rumors declared. In all honesty the expedition was simply to test how far could they go, testing themselves to see if they were ready to take on their full idea on fighting the injustices that ran throughout the clans that many seemed to cast aside more often than not. They were about to fully commit to their idea on killing the guilty within the Coalition, taking down the ones who thought they couldn’t be touched, all in the name of their fallen family and for other fallen families that would never see justice during their lifetime.

 

It took a few days to reach the mountain valley, prepping their new gear to handle the harsh conditions and allowing Raven to create quick to use torches and mini flashlights, that was said to be home to Teufelstier, ironically named Devil’s peak. Once their gear was finished they finally came up with the plan to split up to cover more grounds in hopes of finding the mighty beast’s home then meeting all together to take it down all at once. Clarke was paired with Artemis, heading towards the northwestern peaks, while Octavia and Raven went to explore the northeastern peaks. 

 

It took a few hours of exploring before Clarke found a cavern that Artemis couldn’t follow her through. Artemis was quick to voice her disagreement by letting out a yowl, hoping to warn Clarke, but even she knew that she couldn’t stop any of the girls from doing any of their crazy plans no matter how hard she tried.

 

“Artemis. Go and find the girls and bring them over here. I have a feeling that I’ll be needing them pretty soon.” Clarke mumbled before going in without even checking if Artemis was complying with her request.

 

With a quick unsheathing of her swords, she went into the cavern whose entrance was littered with grand claw marks overlapping old ruin symbols. The cavern appeared to have no light but pillars of stalagmite held it firmly solely on the side of the cavern. Out of curiosity and fear of life, Clarke quickly sheathed one of her swords and quickly pulled out her flashlight. With a quick flick of the switch she could now clearly see the grandness of the cavern and realize that is was no cavern at all. It was a hallway made of stone, with an arched roof, and grand pillars with fragments of gold embedded within them holding it up. Designs decorated the walls surrounding her, each with their own hint of some kind of jewel or colorful touch, but they were each quick to end due to the added decoration of larger claw marks. The further she walked down the hall, the more prominent the marks became. It seemed to be only claw marks but then she took note of the new added color of red and how it’s spray pattern matched the movement of the claws. Fear began to creep up her spine, the knowing that she was likely within its feeding cave with hardly any visibility caused an entirely new version of fear to invade her body. Despite the horror movie scene she continued down the dark hall before reaching a divide, the entire left side covered by a fallen rock arch while the right side showed a small glimmer of light at the end of the hall. It seemed promising if it weren’t for the more prominent claw marks, small tufts of tri colored fur.

 

It took a few hesitant steps before she fully committed to choosing the hall that ended in murder.

 

Halfway through the hall adventure she turned off her flashlight, favoring the new white light at the very end that was partnered with a high pitched whistle of a lonesome wind. It didn’t take much longer to reach the source of the light, a small hole just big enough for her to squeeze by when she crouched, bringing her into a grand room decorated with tattered tapestries and engraved pillars of stone and grey marble. As she took in more of the ornate details that were glamored by embedded gold and jewels. It blew Clarke away to see such beauty in an old looking castle that was in the middle of one of the harshest territories in the coalition.

 

Sadly her adoration was cut short thanks to a spine chilling growl that quickly erupted into an ear piercing roar that shook the entirety of the grand room. 

 

She quickly scoped the room in fear of the legend beast ambushing her from the sides or from behind. She could see no grand beast in any part of the room, causing fear to rise up faster within her since hearing such a gut wrenching roar. A snarl was quick to follow almost immediately to her right, revealing glowing eyes in between two pillars casted shadows that surrounded the massive figure holding the eyes. Slowly the grand figure emerged from the shadows, carefully revealing the myth of the mountain. 

 

The first body part of the grand beast was its front right paw, easily the same size as Artemis’ head, surrounded by a mass of a thick  tri-color fur coat. A mixture of obsidian black, dark storm grey, and freshly fallen snow white decorated its body as the rest of its form slowly graced the light with its presence. As it carefully emerged more and more, Clarke could now see the majority of the hulking body that had been down played within its tales. The beast was far more than what its stories told it to be. The black and white of its fur took over most of its body while the grey was shared around, matching the landscape of the mountains outside, practically identical to the sides of the stone outside the grand hall. While taking in its figure, their eyes met once more, this time Clarke not took note of their color. Melted gold with an inner rim of a rich blood red colored the irises before descending into the dark abyss that were its black pupil slits that continued to narrow as it approached her closer and closer. Its mouth was closed shut but 2 large, pearl white, fangs poked out from the top jaws, giving the appearance of a saber tooth tiger, and 2 large teeth just peeked out from the bottom jaw in between the 2 teeth from the top jaw. Both new and old claw marks decorated its face, giving clear indications that it had seen many battles but none could take down the beast. It's size was far more grand than Artemis, possibly lager, its muscle mass alone easily put any other beast to shame. Even the simple aspect of its claws seemed to have their own classification. 

 

The claws were colored with faded down white with thin lines of black that gave them the look of stone white marble that had just been freshly polished. The size of them seemed almost up to par with the grizzly bears of Trikru while the rest of its body seemed as if it could easily bulldoze any animal within the coalition. 2 large horns poked out of its shoulders colored a dark ivory that continued to grow a darker shade up until the tips of the horns. It was beauty and horror all at the same time. A paradox within the animal world but it would be taken down nonetheless.

 

The beast finally fully emerged from the shadows and slowly began circling the clanless bandit, with its head low and a deep growl rumbling within its chest and surrounding the walls of the room. With careful movements Clarke began to pull out her blue edged swords, made from the poison of Trishana plants that could paralyze and stop hearts in a matter of seconds with just 3 drops. Having a blade soaked in them caused any animal to fall, giving Clarke enough courage to challenge and take down the creature. It continued to circle her a few more times, looking calm and collected while assessing her body for weaknesses, before it finally got all the information it needed and went for her.

 

A quick lunge was all it took and now the battle had begun. It was faster than any of the animals within Trikru territory which threw Clarke off guard when it lunged and nearly ended her life then and there. At the last second she managed to rolled away far enough to gain her bearings and rethink her plan. The leopard roared at her escape, angry that it failed to deliver its kill but causing it to become more determined than before. Once more it lunged at Clarke, this time aiming lower towards her torso to get a higher chance of at least injuring the young warrior.

 

Despite the panther having a good plan, Clarke was able to anticipate the attack and smoothly ducked under its paws, getting close enough to cut the inside part of its legs with both of her swords. The hybrid didn’t anticipate the young warrior to be far more clever than the usual thick headed meat sacks that came by to challenge it so the pain that came with the piercing of the blades was a new feeling for it. It yowled in pain before it crashed into the floor with a heavy thud. It quickly scrambled back up to its feet, far quicker than Clarke could react to, and this time its lunge successfully pinned her to the ground. 

 

The attack was far too fast and its size had Clarke believing that it simply couldn’t move as fast as it just did. Her arms were pinned under its paws, her hands attempting to slice anything with her swords knowing that if she didn’t get out of the position soon her exposed body would suffer a large wound. As soon as the thought of receiving a wound left her mind, it seemed to get the same idea and quickly sunk its fangs into her left shoulder, breaking through the metal and heavy furs she wore for their expedition. The force behind the bite caused some bits of metal to bury themselves within her new wound. Blood poured out in an instant along with the massive wave of pain spreading around it. She quickly lost grip on her swords then felt the pressure on her arms being released. She felt some relief from the action, but it was quickly killed off once the beast buried its teeth even deeper and then tossed her like a ragdoll across the room, landing harshly against a pillar, causing her ribs to crack in a very sickening manner.

 

The hybrid huffed in satisfaction at its attack before limping away and sitting on its ass to lick its new wounds in an attempt to heal them. It could feel something was off with its wounds but it paid it no mind, instead choosing to focus on the golden haired clever girl. It watched as she rolled onto her back, groaning in pain while holding her ribs. From the distance it was at the clever warrior seemed more like an infant on the ground with a large beast keeping it safe.

 

It was a pathetic position to be in and the both of them knew it.

 

Clarke was somehow able to manage to push herself up, pain running like hellfire within her blood, and face the beast again this time pulling a dagger from her boot. If this creature wanted close combat, it was going get it.

 

The large cat saw her new weapon and sudden determination, immediately standing on all fours and advancing on her once more. Each circled each other for a few short moments, each checking the other for an opening in their weakened defenses before both lunged at the same time. The beast quickly swiped down as in lunged while Clarke once again slid under its claws. She quickly sprang back up in time to drag her dagger across its underside. The wound was a direct hit but it wouldn’t have much effect due to the fact that it wasn’t laced in the poison. The wound in her shoulder burned from her attack on the beast, but the cry from the beast made the pain seem a bit better. She stood tall after her successful hit but only for a short moment thanks to the beast’s claws catching the back of her leg.

 

She cried out in pain, dropping slightly, before getting her body slammed and pinned between the shoulder horn of the massive cat and the cold, coarse, stone wall. It quickly roared before dragging her body across the wall, ripping open part of her armor, dumping her body and running towards the other side of the room. Blood continued to pool out of Clarke’s wounds but her anger only grew, causing it to fuel her thirst to put Teuflesier down even greater than her pain. She quickly pushed herself up into a crouched position, yelling directly at the beast in some attempt to intimidate it, but mainly to release some of the pressure of the pain using therapeutic agony filled cries. She quickly pushed herself onto her feet and charged at it full force, causing the beast to push itself up and run directly at the screaming, blonde, bloody, warrior who was now weilding a piece of rubble from the fallen stone rather than their crude knife.

 

The creature had been feeling good up until that moment, the poison was now beginning to affect the legend and causing it to see 2 warriors charging instead of 1. Its movements were now off balance and what was thought to be a good aimed charged was now a bit of a stumbled run. Clarke saw its slight falter within its steps, quickly putting the pieces together that her poison was now in effect and her moment was now or never. Just before the beast could pick out which warrior was where and successfully bite her head, Clarke had dodged its jaws, avoiding its teeth, and managed to swing the piece of stone directly against the side of its face. The shot was a clean one and the beast’s running momentum caused it to crash directly into one of the walls it had previously slammed against. With the stone being old and weathered down from fights and other activities, the cracks no longer supported the beast’s body and instead broke down as soon as its weight hit it.

 

The outline of the wild cat’s body now had its own whole on the side of the room, leading to the raging storm outside. Clarke dropped the stone rubble and carefully walked her way towards her fallen swords, intent on killing the beast with her own blades and nothing more. She slowly made her way towards the exit directly leading towards a large snowstorm. The blood loss was now getting past Clarke’s adrenaline, causing her own vision to begin to double and slightly spin, but she pushed past the feeling in favor of finishing the job she had already started. She knew she would either die a gruesome defeat or win and then die from her own wounds immediately after, but nothing would stop her from stepping outside and facing the damn mutated beast one last time.

 

Her feet dragged themselves over the fallen rocks while her eyes quickly searched the debris for any sign of the overgrown kitten. It was quick to say that the cat did not stay down, despite how hard it had rammed itself into the wall, but it was now out and about, blending in perfectly with the snow storm that caused Clarke’s wounds to feel a thousand times more painful now that they were exposed to the harsh conditions of the Azgeda mountains. Her vision now became unreliable, seeing double and the fading creep of black edged around her eyesight, but her hearing and gut instinct now heightened a tenfold, giving her the feeling of the predator’s eyes watching her every move in a close proximity. She tightened her grip on her sword handles and stood tall on the rubble, waiting for the beast to make its move on her. She stood her ground and waited with patience, feeling the icy harsh wind dig into her wounds, attacking her face, and being the only thing that kept her awake at full attention. She waited a few more seconds before a growl broke through the harsh wind, sounding as if it were directly against her ear.

 

She quickly turned towards that direction but faced only another harsh blow of cold, snow filled, air. Her attention was now focused towards the west side of the mountain which left her wide open to the beast’s attack who quickly head butt her side, flinging her down the rubble and slamming her down towards rough snow covered ground. Once she hit the ground it quickly raked its claws down her back, ripping her further apart. The pain of old scars reopening and new ones opening caused painful memories to come back, each memory of how each wound was received, before a pair of teeth sunk into her calf and threw her across the small space and onto the mountain side.

 

A sickening crack could be heard from Clarke, causing the beast to flinch at the sound of bone breaking, before it took a seat and attempted to get its bearings back after feeling the poison. It took a few minutes for itself, not minding Clarke as she reevaluated her life choices and felt the agony of her broken bones along with the new claw marks that left her with blackening vision. She could feel her life coming down, but she knew she would end this without one last fight. It was either her or the beast falling at the hand of their enemy and not from just the wounds. With the last bits of strength, fueled by stubbornness and sheer will, she lifted her head in search of any weapon she could find. Despite her vision slowly fading in and out, she managed to see that the supposed empty space was actually a small graveyard of Teufelstier’s previous opponents. 

 

Skeletons littered the sides of the small space in between mountains. Some were in pieces while others were simply there and intact with both their armor and weapons, likely having died from one of their wounds rather than to the jaws of the large cat. As she continued searching. Clarke saw that a body laid not far from her with a gleaming steel sword directly beside it. She took a quick glance at the feared legend of Azgeda, who was still minding its own business and licking its body almost as innocent looking as a kitten, before one final idea came to her mind to either finish the beast off or finish herself off.

 

She murmured a silent prayer to herself, catching the attention of the cat just slightly, before taking a quick deep breath and quickly rolling towards the blade. As predicted the beast growled before jumping towards her. From that moment on, everything around the 2 seemed to go completely in slow motion.

 

They say that when time slows down around you, your body is intune with every part of nature down to the last speck in the sky, and the feeling was true for the 2 up high in the mountains. Every snowflake could be counted as they hit their bodies, the slightest shift in wind could be felt, the blood rushing towards each part of their muscles could be seen on each other, but above all else, the thumping of their hearts was heard echoing within the confines of the space while the thoughts of this being their last moment passed through each of their minds.

 

In this small fraction of time, Clarke felt at peace with her life. She was happy with how her life had gone so far, even if it did have a few tragedies in it, but she wouldn’t trade a moment for anything other because it made her into a person that she couldn’t be prouder of. If her time were to end at the claws of such a beast then she would be happy to see all of her fallen aunts and uncles, she could see her fallen leader, she could take a proper look at the parents she had lost long ago on the Ark, and she could finally see her beloved mother Aella. Just thinking about catching a glimpse at the woman who cared for all of them, who took in 3 children despite having nothing, but giving them more than anything they could’ve imagined. All of her memories came pouring in and it caused her to crave the embrace of death with open arms. She could practically hear Aella’s welcoming voice just waiting past the other side if she were to fall and the paws of death at that moment. 

 

But before her body fell prey to the light at the end of the tunnel, her mind brought her the voices of her sisters. The 2 brunettes who had driven her crazy more times than she could count, but the same girls who had supported her when she felt down or hyped her up when she felt driven to do something crazy herself. They were there when they saw Aella’s body and were just as heart broken as Clarke was, but they all helped pull each other up to where they were today. They were now part of the Coalition’s Most Wanted list and they had taken down many horrors amongst the clans of and helped countless families feel closure. Both Octavia and Raven had helped her in so many ways just as much as she helped them and she realized that none of them could be here without the support they all gave one another, along with each of their skill sets. They were a family and she had made a promise long ago to take care of them all just before they all came crashing down to their home. She realized that if she were to die in this fight, she would be breaking her promise to their family and be leaving her sisters to finish their one goal by themselves.

 

Odds be damned, Clarke knew her fight was far from over.

 

Once her ferocity came back at a full force, time began speeding up to its original time, and Clarke put all of her focus into getting the sword and finishing off the overgrown pussy cat once and for all.

 

Her timing and last ditch effort to reach the sword paid off with only seconds to spare. Once in hand she had quickly prayed to every warrior god, thief god, and Becca Pramheda before turning around and letting out a warrior cry before feeling the full weight of a massive cat crush against her body while a new stinging sensation came burning down her shoulders and part of her chest. massive stinging sensation on both of my shoulders and part of my chest. All the air she had left within her lung quickly left her body and her vision was reduced to black almost immediately.

 

Her mind was still awake, but Clarke knew that if she didn’t get found within the next few minutes she would likely die. Despite her early words she was still welcoming to death because it would be an honorable death to have finally slain the beast of the mountain. She slowly began saying her goodbyes but was interrupted by the sounds of familiar voices.

 

"CLARKE! CLAAAARRKE!"

 

It was Raven.

 

"GRIFF GRIFF!"

 

Ans Octavia's voice.

 

"Artemis, go find her our girl."

 

They sounded close by, but Clarke could no longer tell so she simply laid under the hybrid and waited for either death, my family, or exhaustion to come and claim her body. Whichever came first she would gladly accept because she was tired and just needed for something to let her rest.

 

Sadly, pain came first along with the feeling of  her warm blood slowly seeping into the cold snow below her. 

 

"O, I FOUND HER!" Raven's voice suddenly called out, sounding extremely close, followed by the sound of fast curse words, the moving of rubble, and the crunching of snow beneath boots.

 

Suddenly the crushing weight above her began to move and before she knew it she was being greeted by the light and a blurry outline of a worried looking Raven. She could barely see the bomb loving brunette, but she could tell that she was relieved to find Clarke alive. Once more the weight a top her bloody, broken, body shifted again before painfully sliding off her, possibly breaking more parts of her body, but giving her a chance to breathe properly again.

 

Slowly her vision began to clear, allowing the worried faces of Raven, Octavia, and Artemis to be seen just before passing out, exhaustion winning the fight on claim to her body.

 

Clarke woke up to what felt like only hours later, sore under the sheet of the med bay in their mountain home, having the driest of throats to ever exist in the known world and feeling pain that she never believed could exist on someone’s body. Octavia was the first to see her struggle in her tattered state before admitting the news that she had been out cold for nearly a week.

 

It came as a large shock to her, but Raven soon came around later to cheer her up, poking the head of Teufelstier through the window of the doors in an attempt to both scare and amuse her. While her plan was good she had forgotten to take note that Clarke was heavily dosed with morphine and other drugs, so when she saw the head of the beast she had freaked out for a bit before knocking out from shock, only to wake up in terror again only a few hours after Raven had placed the head of the cat a top her body with its jaws open. Needless to say, Raven had gotten a small beating for scaring Clarke a second time with the decapitated head of the beast with only the use of a small dinner tray.

 

Clarke was placed on bed rest for nearly 2 weeks before demanding to get up and return to their previous activities on researching how to get to their real targets. It was all in good efforts but Raven and Octavia and confined Clarke to only doing the most minimal of tasks due to her multiple stitches that covered a large majority of her body. Her back had taken the worst of it followed by her shoulders, part of her chest, and her slightly mangled leg. The last parting gift the beast gave to her ended up being a scar that ran from the edge of her forehead, down her left eyebrow, skimming close to her eye but just missing it, and ending on her cheekbone. Clarke was now marked the worse out of any of them, but she showed no sign of slowing down with any of her injuries. If anything she had become more motivated to continue their work especially now that she had her own look to match with her sisters.

 

She now had a grand cloak of her own made out of the pelt of the beast, with horns on her shoulders and gloves made with the claws of the cat. She even went so far as to create its fangs into good sized daggers made a retractable tusks that the beast had within its mouth. That discovery only happened after they had nailed the head of the beast above her bed, it mouth had dropped open and the tusks had suddenly unsheathed themselves from the back and extended a good portion out of its mouth.

 

Slowly she had worked herself up to full health, checking that her ribs were completely healed while rehabilitating her leg back up to its status of being able to hunt down any beast within the lands of the Coalition. They all agreed that Clarke’s test to declare her good for any activities would be to hunt down any beast outside of the mountain. Raven and Octavia had hoped for it to be a wolf of an adolescent bear, but instead they were given a decent sized panther. They had tried to stop Clarke but she did nothing to show that she listened and instead came back victorious with the last piece of her beast attire. The skull of the beast was a perfect size to cover Clarke’s face and be her helmet for their activities. 

 

With a few adjustments from Raven, they all had their official suits completed. The skulls were their symbols while everything else was made only for a few occasions and certain events. Their large coats were only to be used within the colder regions of the Coalition, against larger targets that they wanted to be recognized for such as killing large named generals and such, and on the occasional thank you feasts provided by certain villages. For more covert and spontaneous things, the masks were often worn with a few black warrior jackets that they had been given to by a small village not to far from the mountain. They were made by a sweet elderly woman in thanks for everything they had done for the local village, and she even went as far as to attach hoods to each jacket to keep up their look, and then gave them each matching pants and boots.

 

It was by far the most thoughtful gift they had received from their time as thieves/vigilantes and so they still came to visit the old woman at least 3 times a year and during the village holidays. In a sense she had become their grandma and would often be their tailor if she so much as saw a single thread going loose.

 

With their 2 distinctive looks they had slowly gained more fame and as time went on their look continued to grow, but they always had their signature skulls in place. It took awhile before they had their final look. They still had their large cloaks for more public jobs, but they now created a design on their black jackets to. They had 3 white claw marks painted on the back going from their right shoulder down to the left side of their lower spine, and a dark red, thick line, running down both of their sleeves. It took them a long time to get where they were, but once they had established their official look and had slowly climbed their way into the the top 12 of Heda’s Most Wanted list, they began their preparations to go after the men that inspired them to do this in the first place.

 

They spent half a year trying to find their main post, discovering that they had been granted into Heda’s personal royal guard, and then they began studying every aspect of their lives for the next 2 and a half years. It may have seemed a bit obsessive, but they needed to make sure that they could get to them without having any chance of Heda catching them, or the warriors themselves being able to get the upper hand. 

 

During that time, they had also made an even bigger name for themselves with their increase in crimes they had committed all over the Coalition. After getting into the top 10 Most Wanted, the underground network of thieves had also wanted to get the girls’ attention so they had invited them to their home within Azgeda. It was there that they had discovered the Queen of Azgeda’s black markets, where she had nearly every person wanted by Heda at her beck and call. While the Queen herself was fairly uncivil towards her own people, she gave all her thieves benefits which included getting any information on anyone, a place to hideout in case of emergencies, and ways into a nice and peaceful retirement without any problems. It seemed like a good deal, but it came at the cost of doing a couple of odd jobs for the queen herself on a few occasions. They didn’t mind the price the Queen asked for seeing as it would lead them into a peaceful retirement outside of their crimes where they could live out the last of their days in peace and possibly find someone to share that life with. 

 

The first job given to them by the Queen was to rob from certain high ranking officials from different clans. They hadn’t robbed in awhile since agreeing to the Queen’s contract, but once they started it became almost like a drug to them and they came to crave the adrenaline that came with each job from each dangerous location. They had a larger freedom with the support from Azgeda’s queen who often asked them to pull off some of the biggest jobs in the history of the Coalition which had gotten the attention of every clan.

 

It had gotten to a point where they had stole from every leader of each clan at least 3 times, each time a different valuable item that was never seen again.

 

They had stolen the best weapons from Trikru, prized horses from Louwoda Kliron's personal farm, and jewels from Azgeda to keep the queen out of suspicion of Heda. Nia had told them to keep whatever they were able to steal from Azgeda, never asking what they would steal, but always impressed by their ability to steal things so close to her high security areas without ever being seen. They kept a few of the stolen items stored within the mountain, decorating the vacant halls and rooms with many various objects and keeping their own favorite items in their rooms, but they always gave the rest of their stolen items to the queen once the job was done. 

 

After a few more jobs of big heist that went into stealing from clan leaders bedrooms as they slept, even going as far as to cutting off their hair as they slept just to mess with them, the Queen finally decided to send them on assasination jobs. She had them kill a few corrupted officials from other clans that helped her, escaped criminals that ran from their final punishment, and warriors that had left their posts in fear of losing their lives and instead choosing to be cowards rather than warriors of Azgeda.

 

As their blood count continued to grow, they made sure to even it out by saving people within bad villages and killing other thieves that would try and kill villagers for the little possessions they held. Many villages would thank them, but once again they simply asked for their silence about their actions but to make sure that their act of violence on those people were spread far and wide. All villages agreed to their strange request but they would also follow it up with gifts such as weapons or furs, but the best gift they had received so far, apart from the old woman who they still went to visit, was from a village elder who gave them traditional tattoos and not allowing any of them to see what he made until after he was done with all of their tattoos. He placed each tattoo on their right shoulder and revealed them to be their animals spirit guides. Coincidently, they had been the animals who they had come to wear since the beginning of their journey. Octavia was marked with a large grizzly bear, Raven was given a menacing looking wolf, and Clarke was marked with a regal yet death defying silhouette of a panther. They had thanked the old man greatly, gifting him a gem from the Trishana Kru that glowed a bright red amber once nightfall came to pass.

 

After their encounter with the old man, other small village elders came to befriend them and offered them sanctuary if they ever needed shelter for a few days. Their connections now grew past the Queen herself and they could now disappear whenever they wanted, but they chose to stay within the Queen’s ranks up until they could complete their original job. 

 

It took them awhile to figure out their entire plan, but today they weren’t about to execute the plan because they were currently planning their temporary vacation leave from the Queen thanks to the Commander's annual clan trip that always took place in TonDC, far too close for comfort for any of them. It had been the Queen’s idea to give them a small vacation of about a month and a half each year, to relax and hide out from the Commander and her warriors. Heda had gotten close to capturing them a few times, but the 3 girls had learned a few things from every clan which often helped them in the most absurd of escapes. It was currently their preparation day to pack all of their things before they left, and to get enough money together for a few extra provisions and to buy off a few guards from Yujleda’s and Boudalan’s borders before hiding out in an elder’s village within Boudalan close to their large cave system that they could hide in if Heda were to ever come by the village unexpectedly.

 

They were close to having all parts of their plan of attack for the murders that took away their mother and leader all those years ago, but it was all planned out for an attack within the walls of Polis, not the lands of Trikru. They had agreed that a plan of attack while the Commander visited Trikru would be suicide because that clan was by far the hardest to escape in once an attack towards Heda was made. They had the most warriors compared to the rest of the clans, Azgeda being a close second, but many of them were the most skilled in the Coalition.  Thankfully they had planned for nearly any occasion so their moving day was all planned out for a calm day of traveling and one last con to get some last minute money.

 

"Raven, did O already take Artemis to set up?" Clarke asked while putting on the last patterns of blood on one of their black jackets that had been ripped up slightly by Artemis to play off with the con.

 

"Yeah, she left like 30 minutes ago. She wanted to set up an even bigger scene because she felt bored. Oh that reminds me, she asked me to tell you if you could bring another jar of  blood for a more theatrical look." Raven answered back while walking into their underground garage with travel bags full of clothes, food, and weapons.

 

"Of course she would." Clarke responded while rolling her eyes at Raven just thinking about how extra Octavia had gotten with each con they did.

 

"Well I'm going to head out to meet her now. Remember to stay on the edge of Ashton Crater until we come and get you. Apparently the intel from Aver says there should be decent traffic today with plenty of good merchant wagons we can sell off." Clarke answered before grabbing her bag full of the weapons needed for the con, her skull mask, the extra jar of blood, and cleaning rags for the blood stains.

 

Raven quickly nodded before following Clarke towards the exit of the garage. She threw their bags in the Rover they would be taking before grabbing a smaller bag and taking off towards the smaller paths that led down the mountain. None of the girls ever really liked to split up for cons, but for this specific con and this time of year, it was a necessary split to divide and conquer. 

 

They almost always ran the Rotting Corpse Con, where 2 of them would pretend to be mauled to death by a panther on a main path and push whoever their target was off the main road. Their targets would almost always back off the main road out of fear of getting killed, and would travel on a nearby lesser used path. That path would be the only path in all of Trikru that ventured within the shadow of the mountain, which was the land any of the 3 girls could travel through in the dead of night without a map. You could blindfold any of them, put them on a sled for over an hour in the middle of the night, give them no tools or cloths, and release them anywhere and they could still find their way back home with a few kills on their shoulders.

 

It didn’t take too long before Clarke finally managed to get to Octavia just in time to see Artemis tearing apart a wagon they had found a few weeks back. While the brash sound of wood being split open filled the forest, Octavia was finishing the last of a blood jar by making splash patterns consistent with that of a panther attack. Clarke could also see that Octavia had attempted to put her makeup on but slightly failed and gave up.

 

"Octavia, I'm the artist here not you." Clarke teased as she took in the scene of Octavia badly covered in fake blood, appearing as if she had both murdered someone and had been murdered all at the same time.

 

"Well you were taking forever, but now that you’re here you can help me fix this.” Octavia teased back while pointing out her entire outfit that was badly covered in random blotches of fake blood.

 

“Oh, and apparently the people Aver mentioned that would take this path are apparently early birds too so we better hurry up before they see us.” She motioned Clarke towards the edge of the bushes directly next to the path.

 

Clarke shook her head before taking the bag off her shoulder and getting out their supplies. She took out the other jackets that they lined on the inside with a skinned deer to imitate ripped flesh on their backs. Once putting on the rest of their attire, Clarke was quick to fix the rest of the fake blood on them and then added the final detail by making small pools of blood where they would be laying down.

 

"Artemis, go to Raven and stay quiet." Octavia quickly ordered their companion.

 

The panther was a bit reluctant to leave their side but followed the order only after giving each girl a quick lick across their faces. Both girls smiled at the gentle beast’s small goodbye before they laid across their marks, patiently waiting for the first fools to arrive. They waited awhile, choosing to play a few games to pass the time, before they finally heard the distinct sound of labored horses coming down the path. Both girls quickly regarded each other with a mischievous smile before laying across their marks.

 

Now normally they expected merchants or hunters coming along this route, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Commander during the annual trip, but what they heard coming down the path wasn’t what they would’ve guessed in a hundred years.

 

Trigedasleng was heard being mumbled before the sound of gasps stopped the group on the road. The small clinking of their weapons approaching closer to inspect the fake accident before finally revealing the identity of the group.

 

"HEDA! COME QUICKLY!" One of the warriors yelled.

 

Clarke’s blood instantly ran cold at the name of the one person who wanted nothing more than to kill their group and have their heads on spikes on the border of the capital. They were nearly caught by the Commander months pior when they were set up during a heist in Ingranrona. They were ambushed while stealing weapons from their armory, nearly being completely surrounded by clan warriors, the royal guard, and Heda herself at the very front shouting out orders for them to surrender. They nearly did had it not been for Raven’s precaution of carrying bombs on herself in nearly every job. They threw 2 bombs against the side of the building closest to the woods, killing a few warriors, before running as if a pack of Trikru wolves were behind them. They barely escaped the search parties lead by Heda that same night, catching a glimpse of her form in the shadows of flames against the trees and bushes.

 

Carefully, Clarke opened one eye and looked at Octavia who looked just as rigid as she did. She had one eye open as well, looking at Clarke and asking through her glare as to what the hell they were we going to do. Clarke quickly thought about the pros and cons of going through with the plan before finally coming with a decision just before the warriors could get close to them.

 

With one last look between the girls who were both riddled with fear and uncertainty, they came to a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, it's me again after a long ass while. I'm so sorry about not posting but you can blame college apps and senior projects for that whole long ass break on this story. I'm still stressed AF about both things but we'll look past that and appreciate the passing of 20gayteen and welcome the new glorious year of 20biteen/20dyketeen/20prideteen. I love all of those different terms for the new year and hope the best for all of you in the new year. May the gays last forever and let's hope that I'm not single by the end of the year. Idk when the next update will be for this fic or when I'll update my other fic, but I'm hoping it'll be by summer. Thanks for supporting me and the people who left comments recently, bless ya'll because it motivated me to finish this chapter up. I just fixed a few errors from the previous form of this chapter but it's still fairly unedited because I don't have a beta to help me out. Goodbye for now, hope to see everyone again soon.


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